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HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ON THE 

PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



The Reality of Psychic 

Phenomena 

A record of the series of scientific 
tests carried out by the author in 
1915 and 1916 to determine the 
amount, direction and nature of the 
force used in levitation, and other 
Psychic Phenomena. 

Liberally illustrated with 
diagrams 

$2.00 net 



E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
New Yoek 



HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

FOR THOSE INVESTIGATING THE 

PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 



BY 



W. J. CRAWFORD, D.Sc. 

LECTURER IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, THE MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL 

INSTITUTE, BELFAST; LECTURER IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST. AUTHOR OF 

"THE REALITY OF PSYCHIC 

PHENOMENA," ETC. 




NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

681 FIFTH AVENUE 



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CoPYBIGHT, 1918, 

Bt E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 



All Rights Reserved 



DEC -4 1918 

Printed in the United States of America 



©CLA506793 






HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS FOR 

THOSE INVESTIGATING THE 

PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 



I 

THE belief of many thousands of persons, 
of whom I am one, is that man survives 
death. When he ' ' dies " it is only his material 
body that dies. The essential part of him — the 
spirit — lives on and functions in a new realm. 
He does not alter his human characteristics be- 
cause he passes through the change of death, 
but he is human in the new world as he is in 
this. 

The survival of man is not scientifically 
proved. It cannot be demonstrated with in- 
strumental accuracy. It cannot, at present, be 
shown to be true, as a theorem, say in mechan- 
ics, can be verified in a laboratory. Until the 
day comes when instrumental communication 
with the next state is an accomplished fact, it is 
l 



2 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

improbable that there will be anything like gen- 
eral acceptance of the reality of survival. At 
present it is a matter of individual judgment 
and of experience. The time is coming, I think, 
when even communication of this kind will come 
about as a result of the research which will un- 
doubtedly be applied to the whole subject gener- 
ally in the years immediately ahead of us, but 
that time is not yet. So it is at present impos- 
sible to demonstrate the other world's reality 
to everybody. Each must find matter for his 
own conviction. Each must experiment for 
himself and come to his own conclusions. And 
such investigation is not easy. Reliable medi- 
ums are scarce ; the phenomena even when gen- 
uine are subtle and mostly outside the scheme 
of things as we know them in this world ; there 
are fraud and humbug around; there are the 
questions of the subconscious mind and various 
strata of consciousness, secondary and tertiary 
personality, unconscious action of the medium, 
telepathy, and so on. So on the whole it 
is only to the relatively few that the know- 
ledge and conviction can come that survival is 
a fact. People generally are afraid that what 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 3 

may look like a demonstration of survival is not 
really so, but is a false deduction from imma- 
ture or unknown data. Euclidian proof, to 
state it plainly, is impossible for the majority 
of people at the present time. But, neverthe- 
less, many people whose minds are not blocked 
by prejudice and not obsessed by the idea that 
the avenues of sense are the only avenues of 
knowledge, ma)ly obtain very strong evidence 
of the reality of the next state if they will but 
take the trouble to look for it. Not proof, mind 
you, in the sense that the scientist understands 
proof, but yet a very strong probability which 
may amount to personal conviction. There is 
as yet no telephone by means of which we can 
ring up our friend who has gone before; we 
have to communicate with him in roundabout 
and devious ways, ways which are sometimes 
troublesome and annoying when we take a 
shortsighted view of things, but which are very 
wonderful when we take the larger view. 

For me the reality of the next state admits 
of no doubt. I am as sure that it exists as I am 
that I am writing these words at this moment. 
My personal conviction is the result of a great 



4 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

amount of experimental and other investiga- 
tion into the phenomena of mediumship, the na- 
ture of some of which the reader may under- 
stand from a perusal of my work ' ' The Reality 
of Psychic Phenomena. ' ' When I set out on the 
investigation I daresay I was as skeptical as 
anybody of the actuality of these things; but 
years of experimental study have entirely al- 
tered my convictions. I am, as I say, perfectly 
certain that all humanity, of whatever race or 
creed, survives death and passes at once into 
another state of existence or plane of being. 
This passing is an automatic process and is 
part of the scheme of nature. The will, or be- 
lief, or faith of man has nothing to do with it. 

People who know little of the subject except 
from hearsay and who are bewildered and preju- 
diced by the undoubted large amount of fraud, 
deceit, and want of respectability formerly con- 
nected with it, often ask me if there is really 
anything in the phenomena of spiritualism. 
They want to know if mal-observation, hallu- 
cination, conscious or unconscious fraud on the 
part of the medium, or a hundred and one other 
things, cannot account for all these strange hap- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 5 

penings without the necessity of resorting to a 
supernormal origin. Even if the actual occur- 
rence of the phenomena be granted, are not our 
own personalities tremendously complex and 
fully capable of compassing what look like mir- 
acles by means yet unknown or undiscovered? 
So why assume that "spirits" are the operat- 
ing agencies even if we have to give in to ex- 
ternal operators of some kind? 

These are the kind of questions my friends 
ask me as one having some modern knowledge 
of the subject. But chiefly they wish to know 
if the phenomena known as spiritualistic really 
take place ; if they occur beyond all possibility 
of dispute ; if I am absolutely sure of it. 

My answer to them is that certain types of 
what are known as physical and mental phe- 
nomena do occur. As certainly do they occur 
as that night follows day. 

Whatever be the interpretation, there is now- 
adays no doubt of the actuality of the phenom- 
ena. Their occurrence has been established as 
surely as any type of ordinary physical phe- 
nomena. I advise my friends to pay no heed 
whatever to the various uninformed articles 



6 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

that appear from time to time in the public 
press or to the prejudiced diatribes of people 
who have never properly investigated for them- 
selves; for it is one of the most remarkable 
facts about this subject that people can be found 
willing and even eager to pronounce opinions 
upon it who have never sat in a single seance. 

Before I deal with the more practical parts 
of psychic investigation the reader will perhaps 
be interested briefly to learn some few of the 
things that the entities who direct the phenom- 
ena (I often call them " operators" in this 
work) declare to be true of themselves and of 
the world in which they dwell, together with 
some of my observations upon their statements. 
The reader is to understand that I do not press 
my own beliefs upon him. I am only telling him 
a few things that appear to me likely to be true 
and which will probably be placed definitely 
within the region of ascertained fact before this 
century has run its course. 

When we take a broad view of what the op- 
erators say of their world and have regard to 
the many little incidents that occur at the se- 
ances — incidents which cannot be properly re- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 7 

ported to outsiders because of their intimate 
nature and their spasmodic and peculiar type 
— we see plainly that there are two main lines 
of consideration. Briefly, it may be stated that 
the inhabitants of the other world can report 
to us anything in the way of their personal emo- 
tional states but that they cannot tell us any- 
thing very satisfactory about the composition 
of their -world. They can tell us if they are 
happy or sad, gay or gloomy, energetic or in- 
dolent; they can say if they are pleased with 
their surroundings or otherwise, if they would 
like to return to the earth, and so on, but they 
cannot tell us in a convincing way if their world 
contains what we know here as mountains and 
seas. Of course this is a crude way of put- 
ting it, but we cannot expect to have exact lines 
of demarcation when we are dealing with a 
subject such as the present. The inhabitants 
of the psychic world — at least those in direct 
contact with us in the seance room — appear to 
be beings similar to ourselves in regard to all 
essential qualities. They possess all the char- 
acteristics of human beings. They are sad, joy- 
ful, happy, mirthful, humorous, as the mood 



8 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

seizes them. In fact, if we say they are human 
beings living in another world and separated 
from us by a veil of sense, but that they can 
communicate their thoughts and feelings to us 
through this veil, we shall have an exact repre- 
sentation of what seem to be the facts of the 
case. 

I admit that it is very difficult for the ordi- 
nary person to bring home to his consciousness 
the fact that these unseen beings can possibly 
be like himself in their make-up. There is an 
ingrained feeling in humanity that the beings 
inhabiting the after-death world must be far 
removed from us in mental qualities and char- 
acteristics — we feel that they should show a 
great advance in intellectual equipment over 
what they possessed here ; that they should be, 
if not quite angels, at any rate not far removed 
from them. Of course this instinctive feeling 
we all possess is due to the centuries of relig- 
ious instruction behind us ; we feel that the next 
state must of necessity be either heaven or hell. 
Hence it is rather a shock to us when we find 
the inhabitants of that other state not to be 
angels by any manner of means, not to exceed 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 9 

us appreciably in intelligence, but to be, in fact, 
only good-natured beings of much the same ca- 
pacity as our familiar selves. I confess in my 
own case that I have not yet qnite got over the 
"heaven" feeling, so deep down do age-long 
suggestions go. I cannot yet quite realise when 
I talk to any of the inhabitants of the other 
world that I am, as a matter of fact, talking 
to beings of nearly the same capacity as any 
human companions. I know that death makes 
no change in essentials, yet deep-grained an- 
cestral suggestions always cause in me a sense 
akin to wonder that it is so. 

The entities behind my experimental circles 
have shown themselves by their acts to be es- 
sentially human beings; and in this regpect 
they conform to the general rules all over the 
world. At all seances of repute, wherever and 
whenever held, by whatever form of medium- 
ship the communications are received, the com- 
municating entities declare themselves in every 
sense to be human beings. They say they have 
simply passed the portals of death and this is 
practically the only way they differ from ordi- 
nary humanity here. 



10 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

The operators say that their world is a bright 
and happy one, full of vital energy. Its inhab- 
itants are mnch more "alive" than when they 
lived on earth. This is a point they emphasise 
particularly. They say they have no desire 
whatever to return here — they are far better 
off where they are. The broad general fact 
seems to be that the other state is a more forci- 
ble or energetic one than this — energy seems 
to be the keynote. Everybody and everything 
are alive in a degree much beyond our concep- 
tion of being alive. Their state of existence is 
altogether fuller, freer, and of higher capacity 
than ours. Moreover the operators declare 
most emphatically that they are very happy. 
Whenever asked the question they try, by the 
energetic way in which they manifest, to illus- 
trate to us how happy and content they are. 
They are very sure of it and will take no denial. 

The operators declare that each of them pos- 
sesses a body, and if asked if it is what we un- 
derstand by the psychic body, they answer in 
the affirmative. They declare that they are 
present in the seance room in the psychic body ; 
that when clairvoyants see them, they see, in 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 11 

effect, their psychic bodies. They say this body 
of theirs is not subject to decay or disorganisa- 
tion corresponding to anything resembling 
physical decay or disorganisation. They em- 
phatically state that all humanity possesses two 
bodies, the physical and the psychical; that 
death really means the complete and final sep- 
aration of the two. As a matter of fact, a good 
many clairvoyants have declared that they have 
been able to observe — with the clairvoyant eye 
— their actual separation at the time of death, 
and the accounts are generally consistent. 

The psychic body if it really exists, and I 
think it does, has the following qualities 
amongst others : 

(1) It is perfectly invisible to normal sight, 
though it may occasionally be made visible to 
clairvoyant sight. 

None of the entities in my experimental se- 
ance rooms has ever been visible to me; but 
various clairvoyants have described spirit 
forms as being present and the descriptions 
have been apparently confirmed by vigorous 
and happy-sounding raps. 



12 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

(2) It is quite impalpable to normal senses 
generally. 

I have never seen, heard, felt or " sensed' ' 
the psychic body or any entity in the seance 
room. 

(3) It is used as part of the mechanism for 
producing physical phenomena. 

I have strong experimental evidence that this 
is so. The operators say that both the unfreed 
psychic body of the medium and their own 
freed psychic bodies are used in conjunction. 

(4) Physical matter presents no barrier to 
its passage through space. 

(5) It is of such a nature that when united 
to the physical body in a living person it is an 
exact duplicate of the physical body. It would 
appear that each cell or even atom of the physi- 
cal body has somehow imbedded in it, or super- 
imposed on it, or connected with it, a corre- 
sponding element of the psychic body. 

(6) Its composition is not material in the 
sense that we know matter. 

(7) It would seem to radiate all round it an 
aura. These are signs of two distant auras 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 13 

round the body of a man* and it is possible 
that one is due to the physical and the other 
to the psychical body. 

(8) It would appear to be the form or mould 
upon which the physical body is organised; it 
being therefore the permanent part of us while 
the physical is the evanescent. 

As I have said I have much experimental evi- 
dence which shows that there is really within 
the body of the medium an interior something 
upon which the operators work when they are 
producing phenomena. It is a something which 
while being impalpable so far as our ordinary 
senses are concerned, is capable of being pro- 
jected from her into space and thereafter being 
filled out with gross matter taken from her 
physical body. This filling out with gross mat- 
ter stiffens this invisible, impalpable, projected 
something and enables it to act on inanimate 
objects in the seance room, such as chairs and 
tables. If it be a portion of the medium's psy- 
chic body, as the operators say it is, then the 
psychic body cannot be rigid as regards form, 
but must be more or less plastic; so that a por- 

* See "The Human Atmosphere," by Dr. Kilner. 



14 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

tion of it can be elongated and projected to defi- 
nite points in space. We have to remember 
that we can conceive an etheric duplicate of the 
physical body. We know relatively very little 
about the ether, which may, for all we can tell, 
be a complex substance. The only thing that 
seems certain about it is that it is something 
which passes beyond the bounds of matter. 
Possibly matter is differentiated ether. There 
are possibly many differentiated forms of ether 
besides that one which we know as matter. 
There may indeed, for ought we know, be a 
whole world of substance and even life within 
the folds of the ether. Nowadays we have 
reached down to the electron and there find ap- 
parently the beginning of matter. It does not 
necessarily follow that we have found the be- 
ginning of all things. 

There is a great deal of evidence that the 
psychic body does really exist and this evidence 
is fairly exact and is quite voluminous. The 
most satisfactory part of it is that dealing with 
the projection of the double, as the psychic 
body has been termed, from living persons. 
Many records are extant which show that while 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 15 

the physical body of a person was sleeping, or 
in trance, or sometimes even awake, his psychic 
body was seen a considerable distance away. 
The matter is under investigation at present, 
but taking the evidence in a general way it 
seems to my mind that we do really possess 
something of the nature of a body — a body not 
made of matter in the ordinary sense — which, 
during life here, is firmly attached to or forms 
an integral part of the physical body and which 
is probably the vitalising agent of that body. If 
this psychic body is partly withdrawn from the 
physical or from any portion of it, then the 
latter is left in a lifeless insensitive condition. 
I have shown elsewhere that the medium at one 
of my experimental circles nowadays experi- 
ences practically no physical inconvenience even 
when forces approximating half a hundred- 
weight have their focus upon her body. She 
seems indifferent to such forces. How is this? 
A valued scientific correspondent has suggested 
that the condition of apparent anaesthesia is 
due to the psychic body of the medium being 
exteriorised during the occurrence of phenom- 
ena ; that is to say, all her psychic body except 



16 HINTS AND OBSEBVATIONS 

the part relating to the head is separated from 
her physical body and is exteriorised, or moved 
outwards in space. My correspondent thinks 
that the brain and head are not affected because 
the medium is quite conscious during the se- 
ance. Her psychic and physical bodies being 
separated, the vitalising agent is not closely in 
contact with the physical and hence she is in a 
condition of partial anaesthesia. My friend 
has possibly hit upon a portion of the truth. 

The operators say that our entry into their 
world at death seems excessively wonderful to 
us, but yet that there is a degree of familiarity 
about it which keeps us from becoming bewil- 
dered. In other words we are under the action 
of the law of continuity, which enables us to 
maintain balance on arrival within our novel 
surroundings. Nevertheless I have reason to 
believe that most of us will be rather aston- 
ished, and I believe, delighted. Those who have 
been suffering from bodily illness will find that 
instantaneously they have become rejuvenated. 
I have been told that the sense of bodily com- 
fort, as it were, which comes to a man on his 
entry into the other life, especially if previous 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 17 

to death lie has suffered from a long, lingering 
illness, is delightful. 

The operators emphatically declare that the 
fact of death does not in the least degree alter a 
man's character. He is exactly the same five 
minutes after the passing as five minutes be- 
fore it. So that the next state of existence con- 
tains all kinds and conditions of humanity, just 
as the earth does. They say that malevolence, 
envy, hate and all the lower attributes inherent 
in earth humanity exist also in their world. 
There are not the two classes only — good and 
bad — as theology would have us believe. They 
say that the good bears a higher ratio to the bad 
than is the case here; so that we have an ad- 
vance, if it is only a small one, so far as moral 
qualities are concerned. 

The operators say that their psychic bodies 
are incapable of being ill or feeling pain, but — 
and it is an important but — they emphatically 
declare that mental pain can be felt and endured 
in their world. In other words they have no 
physical ailments, but remorse, anxiety, and 
mental distress of various kinds still find a 
place with them. The other state of existence 



18 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

would appear to be no heaven and no hell, and 
the sooner this is recognised the better. Judg- 
ing by what the operators tell us, it is a world 
just a little higher than our own as regards 
the moral status of its inhabitants. 

According to the operators the people on 
their side are somewhat curious about psychic 
phenomena. I have often asked them if there 
were many looking on at our seances. "When- 
ever asked the question they would begin rap- 
ping and keep on rapping until we were tired 
of hearing them. They wished to indicate by 
this that there were great crowds of spirit peo- 
ple looking on. They told me this was the case 
at all our seances. They gave me the impres- 
sion that the seance room and the sitters were 
surrounded by a huge invisible audience ar- 
ranged in an orderly and disciplinary manner, 
perhaps tier upon tier as in a lecture theatre. 
The seance to many of them would appear to 
be as novel as it is to us. Moreover, it prob- 
ably gives them the opportunity of looking 
again for a short time upon the affairs of earth. 
In all probability such watchers are able to see 
the sitters forming the circle. A tunnel has 



PHENOMENA OF SPIBITUALISM 19 

been temporarily driven between the two stages 
of existence — stages normally isolated — with 
the consequence that crowds of those on the 
other side seize the opportunity and look 
through on the world they have left behind. 

I have asked the operators why they con- 
tinue to demonstrate at seances month after 
month, year after year; does it not get tiring 
to them? Would they not be better employed 
doing something else? Their 'answer to this is 
that the mere fact of being engaged in produc- 
ing the phenomena and thus doing useful work 
helps them in their own development. For this 
and for other reasons I have rather come to the 
conclusion that one of the central ideas under- 
lying the activities of the next state is that of 
service. 

The operators say that there are different 
spheres within their world. They say that they 
themselves belong to different spheres, some of 
them being in the second, some in the third and 
some in the fourth. One evening, when we had 
a well-known trance medium with us, an entity 
purported to control who said he was from the 
seventh sphere. He said he was the spirit di- 



20 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

rector-in-chief of the circle and gave a few 
homely words of advice and encouragement to 
the medium and sitters. As to what these 
spheres may be I can say very little. Perhaps 
different spirit localities, perhaps different 
states of mentality or consciousness, perhaps 
something quite otherwise. However, the op- 
erators will have it that these spheres exist. 

The entities communicating say, as I have al- 
ready mentioned, that life is very full, vigorous 
and keen in their world. They say that there 
is occupation for everybody and amusement for 
everybody. They declare that many phases 
of activity in our world have counterparts in 
theirs ; and that in addition they have occupa- 
tions to which there are no counterparts on 
earth. It appears that no one need be idle, but 
that all can readily find congenial duties. Most 
duties here are uncongenial so that if the en- 
tities tell the truth, the next state is in this 
respect *q advance of ours. Music and the arts 
also seem to have higher expression there than 
here. 

I have been told at direct voice seances that 
the next stage of existence possesses what are 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 21 

called "dark" spheres — places or states which, 
according to the entities, are most unpleasant 
and in all respects undesirable. The entities 
say there is no orthodox hell, but that the dark 
spheres are nevertheless places of retribution 
whence egress can only be attained by laborious 
and painstaking effort. Possibly it is only the 
worst of humanity who pass into these dark 
spheres at physical death. Most of us, who are 
ordinary folk, and neither demons nor angels, 
will find ourselves well enough satisfied with 
the change. But the point I wish to emphasise 
is that the entities say that in their state of ex- 
istence there are in reality "dark" places — 
places which should be avoided at all cost, the 
way to avoid them, so we are told, being to live 
a normal life while on earth. 

Although the other state of existence seems 
to be inhabited, so far as we can judge, by hu- 
man beings who have passed from this earth 
by the process of death and who are very simi- 
lar to ourselves as regards their states of con- 
sciousness and general characteristics, we find 
that we can form very little conception as to 
the physical appearance — if I may so term it — 



22 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

of that next world. Is it a real tangible world 
containing things, for instance, that correspond 
to our mountains, lakes and seas? Is there 
anything in that world outside the personalities 
or states of consciousness of the beings inhab- 
iting it? Is there anything corresponding to 
matter, as we know it here? In a word, is it a 
solid, real world such as we are used to here, 
or is it some kind of phantasmagoria without 
reality or substantiality as a basis ? 

I may say at once that the operators at the 
Belfast circle are unable to explain — even by 
analogy — the appearance of their world. And 
I think this state of affairs holds generally at 
all reputable circles. Not that the entities in- 
habiting it exist within the unsubstantial fabric 
of a vision, as it were, but simply that they 
are unable to explain to us in terms we can 
understand. 

There is some reason to suppose that the 
psychic realm may include a dimension more 
than ours, i. e., it may be in four dimensions, 
length, breadth, thickness and a something else 
which we may call X. If this is so we need 
not be surprised that its inhabitants can tell us 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 23 

practically nothing of it. We ourselves could 
give no information to beings living in a two- 
dimensional world which would be understand- 
able by them. I once interrogated the opera- 
tors at the Belfast circle on this matter. The 
following is the conversation, answers being 
obtained by raps : — 

Q. Do you know what a state of three di- 
mensions is? 

A. Yes. 

Q. We live in this world in a state of three 
dimensions, length, breadth and thickness. You 
understand what I mean! 

A. Yes. 

Q. Now, is the world in which you live one 
of four dimensions ? 

A. No. 

Q. Is it one of three dimensions? 

A. No. 

Q. It is one of three or of four dimensions? 

A. No. 

They seemed pretty positive about it and as 
far as I could gather appeared to know what 
I meant. I went on with my questioning, but 
beyond the assertions stated above, they did not 



24 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

seem able to explain. The impression I gath- 
ered was that they exist in a state which is not 
dimensional in the sense that ours is dimen- 
sional ; it cannot be described as what we mean 
by jpossessing four dimensions, nor yet what 
we mean by possessing three. Indeed, when 
by a further series of questions I proceeded to 
try to get at what it really was, I came to the 
conclusion they were unable to tell me or to 
offer any analogy which might be helpful. So 
I went on to speak of other things, thinking 
that by such roundabout means I might manage 
to obtain a glimpse at what was meant. 

Q. In the world in which you exist are there 
mountains and lakes and rivers? 

A. Yes. 

Q. You remember what the mountains and 
lakes and rivers of this earth are like? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Are yours as real to you as ours to us f 

A. Yes. 

Q. On this earth a mountain appears much 
the same to everybody. Is that the case in 
your world? 

A. No. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 25 

Q. It appears different according to who 
views it? 

A. Yes. 

Such replies as these indicate, if we are to 
believe the operators (and in regard to experi- 
mental work which I could verify I have always 
found them truthful) that there is something 
radically strange about the world in which they 
exist, something that they cannot explain, some- 
thing that is no doubt simple and easy enough 
to them, but which they are quite unable to con- 
vey to us in terms we can follow. 

This inability of the operators to explain the 
composition of their world holds also with re- 
gard to the explanation of phenomena they 
themselves produce. As a general thing it may 
be stated that they cannot explain the inward- 
ness — if I may so express it — of their phenome- 
nal effects. They can tell us whereabouts on a 
material body they apply mechanical pressure, 
what leg of the table they grip, and so on, but 
they cannot inform us what kind of energy it 
is they use to obtain their results. This may 
be illustrated by a conversation I had with them 
on the matter. I had been discussing the levi- 



26 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

tation of a table with them. Now, I have little 
doubt that at the commencement of the phe- 
nomenon of levitation, a loose fibrous or thread- 
like structure is projected from the medium and 
attached to the under surface of the table, and 
that psychic force is then gradually exerted 
along this structure, making it sufficiently rigid 
to raise the table. Experimental observation 
shows me these things (the reader will find 
the matter fairly fully discussed in my book, 
"The Reality of Psychic Phenomena".) Now, 
it had occurred to me that the thread-like struc- 
ture really consists of a cable of thin tubes and 
that something is pushed into the tubes in the 
form of a fluid. 

Here is the conversation : — 

Q. Let us consider the phenomenon of levita- 
tion. Do you first of all eject a thread-like 
loose structure from the medium's body to the 
under surface of the table and attach the end 
of it to the under surface? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Do you then exert a force along the loose 
structure which stiffens it and enables it to levi- 
tate the table ? 



PHENOMENA OP SPIRITUALISM 27 

A. Yes. 

Q. Do you apply this force gradually? 

A. Yes. 

(These three answers agree with what I 
found from experiment.) 

Q. Now I want to consider the thread-like 
structure along which you exert the psychic 
force. Is each of these threads in reality a 
tube? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Each is hollow inside? 

A. Yes. 

Q. You know what is meant by a tube? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Do you stiffen the tubes by filling them 
with something? 

A. Yes. 

Q. With a gas? 

A. Yes. 

Q. You know what I mean by a gas? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Is it not a fluid like water you inject into 
the tubes? 

A. No. 



28 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

Q. Is it not a liquid? 

A. No. 

Q. Is it a gas? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Is the gas one like the air we have here? 

A. No. 

Q. Yon know what a gas of the earth is like? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Is the gas you inject into the tubes like 
Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, or any of the 
others we have here? 

A. No. 

Q. But it is a gas? 

A. Yes. 

Q. You are quite sure it is a gas? 

A. Yes. 

Q. But we have no gas on earth like it? 

A. No. 

Q. Then this particular gas of which you 
speak does not belong to the earth? 

A. No. 

Q. It is only to be found in the spirit world? 

A. Yes. 

Q. But you would call it a gas? 

A. Yes. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 29 

Q. This gas is supplied to you for the pur- 
pose of producing the phenomena? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Does the material of which the tubes are 
formed belong to the spirit world like the gas ? 

A. No. 

Q. The material for the tubes belongs to the 
matter of our earth? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Is it matter taken from the body of the 
medium? 

A. Yes. 

Q. So that a tube consists of two kinds of 
matter, matter from the earth and matter from 
the spirit world? 

A. Yes. 

I went over the conversation again, putting 
the questions in different form, but the opera- 
tors stuck to their tale. In brief it is that the 
structure which levitates the table, which moves 
the table about the floor, which makes raps, 
consists of a bundle of tubes. The tubes them- 
selves are manufactured from matter taken 
from the body of the medium. A gas, or some- 
thing which resembles a gas, and which is not 



30 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

found on earth but belongs exclusively to the 
psychic world, is injected into the tubes and 
this causes a pressure which makes the whole 
bundle rigid or semi-rigid. My readers are to 
understand of course that the explanation is 
not mine and that the rapping entities are re- 
sponsible for it. It need not be taken seriously, 
for all it shows is that the operators seemingly 
cannot explain in plain terms the more subtle 
phases in the production of their phenomena. 

It has been stated in some places that when 
a man dies he enters upon a period of oblivion 
before waking up in the next state; that is to 
say, there is a break in consciousness lasting 
for a longer or shorter period. Accordingly, I 
asked some questions of the operators. I went 
about the matter as follows: — 

Q. Will the operator who has been rapping 
answer me a question? 

A. Yes. 

Q. I want you to tell me for what period of 
time you personally experienced unconscious- 
ness when you died. Have you any objections 
to telling me? 

A. No. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 31 

Q. Was it for more than three days! 

A. No. 

Q. Less than three days? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Less than two days? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Was it for only a few hours? 

A. No. 

(A pause to consider what the operator could 
mean.) 

Q. Were you unconscious at all? 

A. (With joy) No. 

Q. You passed through the change we call 
death without a break in consciousness ? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Is this general? 

A. No. 

Q. Yours was a special case? 

A. Yes. 

Q. There is usually a period of unconscious- 
ness? 

A. Yes. 

Q. From a few hours to a few days ? 

A. Yes. 

At direct voice seances I have been informed 



32 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

by entities supposedly speaking through the 
trumpet that in some few cases unconscious- 
ness at death persists for as long as six months 
of our time. 

One 's feelings on waking up in the next state. 

I asked questions on this matter from the 
rapping entity above mentioned. 

Q. Did you feel strange when you realised 
you had passed through the change of death? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Did you feel very strange and bewildered? 

A. No. 

Q. Things were strange yet in a kind of way 
familiar! 

A. Yes. 

Q. Would it be correct to say that the degree 
of strangeness and unfamiliarity is on a par 
with what one of us would experience on being 
suddenly transferred to, say, some tropical 
country? 

A. Yes. 

There may be a line of continuity between 
the two worlds — and there seems no doubt of it 
— but for all that the two worlds themselves are 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 33 

radically different. It is questionable if matter 
— in the sense that we understand matter — ex- 
ists within the next state at all ; even matter in 
its most refined form, such as the electronic. Far 
more likely is it that our matter vanishes there 
altogether, even to our last conception of it, and 
the next state is an etheric one, a fact which 
would not render continuity impossible, for 
physicists are well acquainted with the interac- 
tion of ether on matter. It seems to me that 
our matter has some kind of tf counterpart or 
mould within the next state, very difficult to 
explain in words. Perhaps matter here is the 
projection of fourth dimensional matter, which 
would explain a lot of anomalies. 

That there are very real energies in the next 
state which have some form of correspondence 
to the energies we have here, I have no manner 
of doubt. I have seen enough in the seance 
room to convince me of this. To take only one 
example: — In the phenomenon of levitation of 
a table or other article a psychic arm extrudes 
from the medium — I do not mean an arm in the 
sense of the human arm, but a projection of 
some kind from her body. Now this projection 



34 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

or extrusion is practically invisible and impal- 
pable — it is impalpable except just at its free 
end, where it grips or presses on the body it is 
levitating — yet it transmits throughout its 
length great stresses, as is obviously the case 
when it sustains at its free end, as it has done, 
a body weighing between thirty and forty 
pounds. Again, this structure seems to con- 
tain within it quite a lot of matter temporarily 
borrowed from the body of the medium. In 
what state or condition is this matter that it 
should be invisible and impalpable and yet be 
capable of transmitting large stresses! Cer- 
tainly in no state which we know here. A scien- 
tific friend has suggested that it has temporar- 
ily disappeared into a fourth-dimensional state, 
which is at any rate conceivable. And how can 
matter be taken from the medium's body, and 
how can it be returned, without injury to her? 
These are statements of fact, though they are 
problems whose solutions are unobtainable in 
our present state of knowledge. That such 
things happen shows us, I think, that the in- 
habitants of the other world, or at any rate 
those of them who are trained to the work, are 



PHENOMENA OF SPIEITUALISM 35 

able to act on living matter in ways of which 
we have not the least conception. It seems that 
they can make rear attacks on matter, whereas 
we have to be content with frontal fighting. In 
any case their ability to act on matter indicates 
that even in their plane of existence they are in 
indirect contact with it. Possibly their rela- 
tion to matter is similar to onr relation to the 
ether, that is to say, there is a reversal of stand- 
point. 

From my experience in the seance room I 
conceive the next state as being a very material 
one, or perhaps I should rather say, a very solid 
one to the senses with which we shall be 
equipped when we are its inhabitants. I do 
not for a moment think it is an ethereal, evan- 
escent, quasi-real world, having no external so- 
lidity. On the contrary, I am satisfied that it 
presents to those living in it an appearance of 
reality at any rate as great as this world does 
to us, and probably greater. It seems to me 
to be all a matter of sense perception. We can 
be quite sure that the entities existing on the 
other side of the veil do not possess the mate- 
rial senses that we do. But the peculiar thing 



36 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

is that they posses senses in a general way 
analogous to ours. Probably even in our state 
of existence such senses are latent within us 
and suddenly spring into maturity just at or 
shortly after death of the physical body. But 
however it is, with whatever instruments of 
perception the unseen entities are equipped, 
their world, according to their own accounts and 
according to what I can indirectly perceive 
through years of experimental study in the se- 
ance room, appears to them as a solid, real 
world possessing permanent form. Incident- 
ally they say it is a beautiful world, more beau- 
tiful even than ours. 

I am satisfied from experimental observation 
that the inhabitants of the next state have a dif- 
ferent conception of time from ours. Even when 
they approach our world very closely, as they 
do at good seances, they seem to have some dif- 
ficulty in getting into our way of computing 
time, that is, in thinking back to what they knew 
as time when inhabitants of the earth. As to 
what the difference is I do not know. It is pos- 
sible that both time and space as we know them 
here are only components of something else? 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 37 

and that the inhabitants of the other world see 
the resultant, as it were. 

A speaking entity at a direct voice seance 
once gratuitously informed me that there is no 
such thing as space. Without going so far as 
that we are bound to come to the conclusion that 
our views of space are limited. Space is in- 
finite with regard to our present senses. It 
seems to me like an illusion purposely pre- 
sented to us in order to conform to the prin- 
ciples of our earth existence ; to keep us chained 
in, as it were. 

The entities communicating say, as I have al- 
ready mentioned, that the next state is not a 
homogeneous whole, but that it is built up of 
"spheres" and "realms," and that they them- 
selves do not all belong to one sphere. Entities 
belonging to a higher sphere may come down at 
will to a lower, but not vice versa. At one of 
our seances some of the visitors asked the op- 
erators in what spheres they (the visitors) 
would find themselves when they left the earth, 
and the answer was, the third and fourth. The 
first sphere would seem to be the abode of peo- 
ple whose moral development was somewnafc 



38 HINTS AND OBSEBVATIONS 

low when they passed from things terrestrial; 
who need a lot of cleaning up before they can 
rise into the second and higher spheres; in 
other words, the spheres next the earth are the 
abode of the riff-raff of humanity. The entities 
tell me that all our experimental circles are 
guarded very strictly on their side so that no 
undesirables shall be able to get near. As a mat- 
ter of fact I would not care to be in the Belfast 
seance room if I had any doubt of the benefi- 
cent intentions of those behind the scenes. 
With psychic forces up to nearly a hundred- 
weight being exerted one can easily imagine 
what would be likely to happen if an evilly-dis- 
posed entity was able to thrust his presence 
and will upon the regular operating entities. 
The poltergeist disturbances, whose occurrence 
has so often been reported, show that such evil- 
ly-disposed entities actually exist and I can 
easily believe the operators when they state 
they have thoroughly to guard the seance cham- 
ber. 

The operators state that it is some attribute 
of the psychic body which automatically pre- 
vents an entity in one sphere from rising to a 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 39 

higher. What they say leads to the impression 
that the psychic body of a person in the lower 
spheres (say the first and second) has some or- 
dinary matter entangled with it, i.e., his body is 
not purely psychic or etheric, but is encrusted, 
if I may use the word, with particles of some 
kind of matter. The matter may be of so fine 
a nature that it would not be palpable to us, 
yet its presence in the psychic realm is a great 
embarrassment to the entity possessing it. If 
we accept the theory that while here we possess 
the psychic and physical bodies together, inex- 
tricably commingled, and that the former is the 
organising structure of the latter, it is not so 
hard to suppose that when the two are sepa- 
rated at death, a thousandth of a gram or so 
physical matter may remain mixed up with the 
psychic form. 

I once tried to weigh the psychic body of my 
medium. She was seated on a weighing ma- 
chine and I asked the operators to exteriorise 
her psychical body and place it beyond the lim- 
its of the weighing machine. I wished to see 
if there would be any decrease in the weight 
of the medium when this was done, i. e., if her 



40 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

psychic body was susceptible to the force of 
gravity. On the operators giving three little 
raps on the floor as a sign to me that they had 
done what I asked, I found that the medium's 
weight had decreased by about eight pounds, 
but that the decrease did not remain constant 
at eight pounds, but became less and less until 
there was practically no diminution at all ; and 
during the whole experiment the operators de- 
clared that the medium's psychic body was ex- 
teriorised and placed beyond the limits of the 
weighing machine. I thought at the time that 
the experiment was a failure and I am not now 
sure that there is much in it. It has, however, 
occurred to me as just possible that when the 
operators tried to remove the medium's psychic 
body they were unable to remove it per se, but 
had to take some physical matter along with 
it, i. e., some gross matter was at first adhering 
to the psychic body and this was gradually re- 
turned to the medium's physical body, as evi- 
denced by the gradual reduction of her loss of 
weight, until finally her psychic body became 
more and more nearly pure. 
I expect the normal human being on awaken- 






PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 41 

ing in the next state will find that there has 
occurred an exaltation in his state of conscious- 
ness; that is to say, that his sense of his own 
ego has been enlarged. There will automatic- 
ally come to him a more intense perception of 
vitality ; he will feel himself a more vibrant en- 
tity than he ever felt himself here. Here his 
soul looks upon Creation out of the five little 
windows of the senses. They are really very 
small windows and afford only a very limited 
view. Some of them seem also purposely so de- 
signed that the view they do let through is dis- 
coloured and out of focus, so that instead of see- 
ing the Universe as it really is, man beholds 
only glimpses of it. Nevertheless it is only a 
matter of sense peception and I therefore ex- 
pect to find that across the barrier each of us 
will come into possession of a set of new senses 
much more useful and effective than those we 
have here. Those senses are probably latent 
in us now. Some of them may even be slightly 
active here, as is probable in the case of clair- 
voyants. For the great majority of mankind, 
however, they are latent and of little apparent 
use ; though this uselessness may be but appar- 



42 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ent as they may be the means of which life is 
possible here at all, inasmuch as they may form 
a link connecting us with energies within the 
etheric fold. In any case I fully expect that 
im mediately on dissolution man will find him- 
self the owner of senses exactly suited to the 
conditions of his new world. Nature is too or- 
derly and precise in that part of it which we 
can examine here for the case to be otherwise. 
If there is a next world — and I for one know 
there is — then it follows we can predicate all 
the conditions of that world as existing subject 
to law and order. There is certain to be noth- 
ing of chaos. 

This world is carried on — I mean as regards 
its physical well-being — according to very strict 
law. The force of gravity, for instance, which 
holds our bodies to the surface of the earth 
which determines the path of the earth round 
the sun, and which, in fact, renders life here 
possible at all, is constant. It is the same now 
as it will be a thousand years hence. If it 
varied in any appreciable degree there would be 
such an upheaval in the universe as no human 
brain could conceive. The laws regarding the 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 43 

production of electricity, to cite another case, do 
not vary. The laws regarding the three states 
of matter, solid liquid, and gaseous, do not vary. 
We go on our way under constant law and or- 
der. We do not find a whimsical fickleness 
about Mother Nature. And so, reasoning by 
analogy, I expect to find our next state of exist- 
ence as regards its physical aspects, or what 
correspond to physical aspects, as firmly and 
unchangeably governed as this. There will be 
natural law and order of a well-nigh perfect 
kind and all the philosophers and occultists in 
existence could not persuade me to the contrary. 

Besides physical law this world of ours is 
also under rule and order with regard to the 
government of the people in it. So also, I ex- 
pect, with the other world. It is a somewhat 
higher state than this (of that there is no doubt) 
and it is certain to be under organised govern- 
ment. Natural law will hold sway over it and 
spirit law will touch all its people. 

If there is one thing more certain than an- 
other it is that the other world is not at some 
immense distance from us, to be reached only 
by tremendous effort and involving total sep- 



44 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

aration from the affairs of this earth. The 
other world is here. It probably interpene- 
trates the earth and all things earthly. Being 
a state of a different order from ours, either 
by simple numerical dimension or by reason of 
its involving the ether directly in its composi- 
tion, it can exist along with ours. That we are 
not conscious of its existence is no disproof of 
this. "We have analogies which are helpful. A 
room, for instance, may be simultaneously full 
of light rays, X-rays, wireless telegraphy rays 
and so on ; they may all exist together and our 
senses will tell us only of the light rays. The 
rest, without the use of special instruments, 
will be as though they do not exist for us. So 
it is perfectly conceivable that the next state 
may exist in a condition of extreme reality and 
we be quite unconscious of its presence. Its in- 
habitants may be all round us — and I believe 
they are all round us — and we may be quite un- 
conscious of their nearness. Indeed, a tremen- 
dous range of evidence shows that we are con- 
tinually surrounded by those who exist in that 
other world, i. e., by those who have passed 
through the process of death. Whether they 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 45 

are continually conscious of our proximity I 
think is doubtful. That they are sometimes 
conscious of our presence I am sure is correct. 
Even many of us here at some time or other 
have, I think, sensed an invisible presence with 
us. But generally speaking we on this side are 
blind and deaf to all projections from the other 
state. 

That this earth is of a somewhat lower order 
with regard to its mental characteristics and 
physical energies than that next one of which 
I speak, is, I think, evident from what occurs 
in the seance room. All we can do in the seance 
room is to present to the unseen operators suit- 
able passive conditions, i. e., we do nothing ac- 
tively involving intelligent knowledge and de- 
sign. All the work is done by the unseen entities. 
They it is who set in motion the intricate 
processes which result in phenomena. We sit 
still and do nothing. It is not conceivable that 
their world is of a lower order than ours if this 
is so. A civilised race does not enter a country 
of savages and expect the savages to be able to 
design bridges and lay down railway tracks. 
The higher does not expect the lower to do the 



46 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

brain work. It is certain that all the active 
thinking is done by the inhabitants of the next 
state when they communicate with us either by 
way of physical or mental phenomena. So it 
therefore appears that their world is at least 
a step in advance of ours. It is a stage through 
which we pass on our unknown journey. Its 
inhabitants are the "live" people while we are 
relatively sleeping. As a matter of fact many 
entities call ours the shadow world and theirs 
the real one. 

Is the investigation of spiritualism a suitable 
study for everybody? 

The answer is in the negative. Persons of 
hysterical temperament should have nothing to 
do with it. Only those with calm well-balanced 
minds should touch it. For my own part I can- 
not see why the mere fact of opening up a chan- 
nel of communication with the next state should 
cause anybody to lose his ordinary self control 
and make him behave like a religious fanatic. 
Surely the idea of there being a state into which 
all humanity gravitates after this one is a com- 
mon-sense, logical conclusion from the general 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 47 

facts of our present life. There is nothing to 
get excited about. None of my friends gets 
the least bit excited and I have many who are 
interested in the subject. Nevertheless I have 
known people who are not fitted tempera- 
mentally for psychic investigation, and I warn 
any such to leave it severely alone. If it can- 
not be approached in a calm, reasoning spirit, 
and without undue absorption, it should be left 
in the hands of those better fitted for the task. 
One of the matters least understood by en- 
quirers into psychic phenomena is the question 
of the effect of the phenomena on their bodily 
health. Now, although we are dealing with a 
realm practically unknown when we deal with 
psychic things, there are a few common-sense 
rules which if observed, will save us from bad 
effects. Psychic experience would be dearly 
bought if we could only have it at the expense 
of nervous or mental breakdown. Properly in- 
vestigated there is no risk of this. Improperly 
investigated there is very serious risk. "Why 
should there be risk to one 's health when one is 
a member of a circle where physical phenomena 
are produced, say for the sake of argument, 



48 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

strong physical phenomena such as telekinesis, 
the trumpet voice or materialisation? The rea- 
son is ohvious. The levitation of tables, the 
movement of furniture, the carrying about of 
trumpets, the voices, the materialisation of 
forms, all represent a quantity of work per- 
formed on the physical plane — and work not 
permitted in the easiest way as we ourselves 
would do it, but done in a special and ab- 
normal way by what purport to be spirit 
entities. For a given quantity of work 
done, at least an equal quantity of energy 
must disappear. Whence comes this energy? 
There is only too much reason to suppose 
that it comes from the bodies of the medium 
and sitters. Do not suppose that it all 
comes from the medium. It is not correct to 
consider the medium the only source of energy. 
It is more correct to consider him the instru- 
ment whereby the energy of the circle can be 
utilised to produce phenomena. So that a sit- 
ter at a physical circle probably supplies from 
his body — and from the most vital part of his 
bodily structure, his nervous system — elements 
which the spirit operators utilise to do their 



PHENOMENA OF SPIEITUALISM 49 

phenomenal work. The sitter therefore loses 
nervous energy and it is in this respect that the 
danger to his health lies. In a harmonious fam- 
ily circle the loss of nervous energy is at a min- 
imum consistent with the presentation of phe- 
nomena; in a promiscuous circle hastily got 
together it is likely to be at a maximum. I do 
not think that even at the best the process of 
converting nervous energy into physical phe- 
nomena is an efficient one. I am rather inclined 
to suppose it one of the most inefficient methods 
of conversions of energy we have in nature. If 
this is so it follows that if we could accurately 
compute the work actually done, say at a sit- 
ting of one and a half hours' duration where 
there was an abundance of phenomena, we 
would find that the energy taken from the bod- 
ies of the sitters might be five or more times 
as great, even in the most harmonious circles ; 
whilst in inharmonious sittings it might be ten 
or more times as great. The figures, of course, 
are only guess-work but they will serve to show 
what I mean. Hence the reader can see that 
quite a considerable amount of energy in the 
form of nervous elements must be taken from 



50 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

the bodies of the sitters. Energy may also be 
supplied from the psychic world, but we must 
not rely upon that. Therefore the primary 
rule for the safeguarding of one's health is this 
— Do not sit too often. At the Belfast circle 
the young medium and her family sat only once 
a week except on special occasions. The con- 
sequence of this was that her health never in 
the least suffered, nor the health of any of the 
circle. Phenomena could be relied on to occur 
at 95 per cent, of the sittings. Bad weather, 
good weather, nothing seemed to make any dif- 
ference. Had she been a professional medium 
and sitting every day, does anyone suppose the 
results would have been anything like so good 
and reliable? So the investigator should take 
warning by practical experience and sit not 
more than once a week, and not longer than an 
hour and a half even then. It is the safest way, 
and it is best to be on the safe side when deal- 
ing with a subject about which so little is known 
with certainty. One is apt to be a little enthu- 
siastic at the commencement of one's investi- 
gations and to overdo the thing. For this is 
one of the subjects of which the difficulties and 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 51 

dangers are only apparent when one has en- 
tered well into it. 

Let there be no mistake about it. To most 
people frequent sittings, especially for physical 
phenomena, S* injurious. The least damage is 
done in a harmonious family circle which meets 
regularly. Different people are differently sus- 
ceptible. It would appear that the spirit en- 
tities can "draw" more easily from some peo- 
ple than from others. That is to say, people 
are so constituted as regards their bodily func- 
tions that with some the nervous elements nec- 
essary for phenomena can be abstracted with 
greater ease and in larger quantities than with 
others. Such people are therefore liable to be 
injured physically if they do not use the great- 
est discretion. Just why the vital nervous fluid 
can be taken more easily from some than from 
others is unknown, but I have no doubt of the 
general truth of the statement. I have found 
that among seven people in the seance room, 
the loss of bodily weight after a good phenom- 
enal sitting varied from nothing in the case 
of one sitter to six ounces in the case of an- 
other (see "The Reality of Psychic Phenom- 



52 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ena")- Some of this may have been due to 
natural causes, such as respiration and so on, 
but very improbably the whole of it. And while 
it is true that with some people the nervous ele- 
ments can be abstracted with ease, in the case 
of a few people they canot be abstracted at all ; 
and some people are even so constituted that 
they absorb' this kind of energy in a seance 
room instead of giving it out. If you find some- 
body who seems positively to thrive on seances, 
be wary. That person is almost certainly — > 
perhaps quite unconsciously to himself — help- 
ing himself at the expense of others. There 
is more in the vampire theory than most people 
suppose. A seance chamber for physical phe- 
nomena is a kind of melting pot of nervous en- 
ergies. The vampire takes back an undue 
share of what is left over when phenomena are 
concluded and he may also be drawing on his 
own account from his neighbours during the 
whole time of the sitting. And it is not always 
necessary that such a person be in a seance 
room in order to receive benefit at the expense 
of his fellows. A hall full of people or a 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 53 

crowded public conveyance suffices. I also am 
inclined to think, from the circumstantial tales 
that have been told me, that there are means 
of starting up an actual flow of nervous ele- 
ments from one person to another, the victim 
at the time being quite unconscious of the use 
that is being made of him. For it is a peculiar- 
ity of the loss of energy of the nervous type — 
tHe kind of loss that occurs at seances — that the 
depletion is not usually felt at the time of its 
occurrence, but only some hours afterwards. 
After an evening sitting for physical phenom- 
ena, it is often only on the following morning 
when the ill effects are observed. So unequal 
have I found to be the contributions of nervous 
energy from different people, that when acting 
as a member of a circle I now always, if I can 
manage it, ask all the individuals present to 
join hands for a moment at the conclusion of 
the sitting — at the same time asking the op- 
erators to average up, as far as they can, the 
total loss amongst those present. So in order 
to safeguard your health you should be careful 
with whom you are sitting. 



54 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

The following are some further results of 
weighings just before and just after seances. 

Eesults for an ordinary seance where the sit- 
ters' hands were in contact with the table 
throughout. 

A drawing-board was placed upon the plat- 
form of the weighing machine and a chair upon 
the drawing-board. The board and chair to- 
gether weighed 18% lbs. and this is included in 
the weights given below. 



Weights just be- 
fore seance. 

Stone Pounds 

Mr. X. (medium) 11 9% 

Miss A 8 13 

Mrs. B 10 2Yz 

Mrs. C 11 11% 



Weights just 

after seance. 

Stone Pounds 



11 

8 

10 

11 



9% 

12V 2 

2 

10% 



The following are the results for the same sit- 
ters but for another contact seance. 

Weights just be- Weights just 

fore seance. after seance. 

Stone Pounds Stone Pounds 

Mr. X. (medium) 11 10y 2 11 10y 8 

Miss A 9 8 13% 

Mrs. B 10 1% 10 1% 

Mrs. C 11 10% 11 10y 8 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 55 

The following are the results for a ''direct 
voice" seance. The drawing-board and chair 
in this case together weighed 13% lbs., and this 
is included in the weights given below. 

Weights just be- Weights just 

fore seance. after seance. 

Stone Pounds Stone Pounds 

Mrs. Y. (medium) 19 13% 19 13% 

Mrs. B 9 13V 2 9 13y 2 

Mrs. C 11 6 11 51/4 

Mrs. D 10 3% 10 3^ 

Mr. X 11 6% 11 414 

Mr. E 13 7 13 &/ 2 

Mr. F 12 9V 2 12 9% 

A very simple method of communication be- 
tween this state and the next is by movements 
of a table when a number of people sit round it 
and place their hands on it. Its chief recom- 
mendation is that it does not require a very 
powerful medium. The experimenter will find 
that nearly any combination of half a dozen 
persons can obtain movements of the table in 
this way. Unfortunately, however, there are 
several drawbacks. For, generally speaking, 
communications thus obtained are not clear and 
definite. We have, to begin with, contact be- 
tween the hands of the sitters and the table, so 



56 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

that the questions of involuntary muscular 
movement and the influence of the muscles on 
the thoughts of the sitters come in, which are 
very serious matters indeed when the veracity 
or falseness of messages has to be considered. 
I have made some experiments on movements 
of the table with contact and have otherwise 
observed many cases of the phenomenon with 
various mediums. I have come to the conclu- 
sion that there are three methods by which the 
table is caused to move: — ■ 

(1) All movements are due to muscular force 
employed by the medium. The medium may be 
quite unconscious that he is exerting muscular 
pressure, but the fact remains that every mo- 
tion of the table is due to him. (I do not say 
that it is not a genuine psychic action, for in 
many cases I believe it is.) And not only is he 
employing muscular pressure, but he is using 
a force above that which he normally exerts — ■ 
a well-known condition accompanying psychic 
action, which often causes an enhancement of 
muscular tension. 

(2) All movements are due to psychic action 
— to psychic forces applied to the table .quite 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 57 

independently of the muscular system of the 
medium. 

(3) Movements are caused by a mixture of 
(1) and (2) ; i.e., there is true psychic pressure 
combined with some muscular pressure. 

It is only with mediums of the type (2) one 
can be fairly certain that true psychic messages 
are coming through. 

The chief trouble with these contact move- 
ments is the determination of the effect of the 
thoughts of the sitters upon the motion, either 
ordinary objective thoughts or subconscious 
ones. How far can we be sure that the move- 
ments are due to external agencies and how far 
to ourselves? For my part I do not think that 
any strict line of demarcation can be drawn. I 
have often found that messages thus delivered 
are a mixture of the real thing and the false 
and that absolute reliance cannot be placed upon 
them. Nearly everybody who has experi- 
mented is aware of the sometimes unsatisfac- 
tory character of such messages. A name, for 
instance, is being laboriously spelt out and the 
spelling breaks down in the middle so that the 
word cannot be completed, and if attempts are 



58 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

made to complete it, only worse confusion en- 
sues; some simple sentence becomes inextric- 
ably mixed up with another ; two entities seem- 
ingly try to communicate at the same time; 
and so on. I have known many cases in which 
the answers received have been obviously due 
to the thoughts of the sitters, either subliminal 
or objective, and to nothing else whatever. It 
was perfectly apparent that no spirit entity 
had anything to do with them. On the other 
hand I know of some cases where brief but 
genuine messages have been received — proved 
genuine by corroborative phenomena at the 
same or a subsequent seance. A favourite ex- 
planation for the confusion and uncertainty 
arising from these "contact" messages among 
spiritualists is that two or more spirits in dif- 
ferent "planes" are trying to operate the table 
at the same time, existing on different planes 
they cannot see each other and are otherwise 
totally unaware of each other's presence. This 
is a plausible enough explanation but is suspect. 
More likely the cause lies in the imperfect 
means of communication, the lack of a strong 
medium, and in the physical contact between 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 59 

hands of sitters (and hence their brains) and 
the table. It is my experience that whenever 
opportunities are given, the inhabitants of the 
next state endeavour to open up communication 
with this ; so one can be pretty sure that when 
any circle of earnest enquirers sits round a 
table and gives as good conditions as possible, 
everything will be done that can be done from 
the other side. There is no need to put down 
any confused messages to lack of will to com- 
municate on the part of our friends across the 
barrier. Their world is not a world of chaos 
but one of orderly and systematic endeavour. 
They do all the real work at seances and it is to 
be presumed they labour in a consistent and 
regulated manner. 

Sometimes, however, the experimenter will 
find that he is able to obtain what look like 
genuine messages by means of a tilting table; 
and he will find that if he is enthusiastic and 
tries to give the best possible conditions which 
experience shows him are necessary for phen- 
omena, that the clarity and length of the mes- 
sages are likely to improve. For it is only by 
persistence that anything worth having can be 



60 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

obtained in the psychic world. The dilettcmte 
gets nothing. Many people seem to forget that 
the entities operating from the next state have 
themselves to experiment with every circle 
which is formed before even the slightest phe- 
nomenon can be produced, and that sometimes 
the sitters do not form an ideal combination 
from this point of view, with the consequence 
that their psychic emanations have to be mixed 
and worked up for quite a long time before de- 
cent results can ensue. So that it is only to the 
earnest enquirer that phenomena come. In 
my opinion the home circle is the place at which 
one should attempt to communicate with one's 
nearest and dearest. A good home circle meet- 
ing for an hour or an hour and a half once a 
week and composed only of the members of 
one's own family or of close friends, is in the 
end productive of more satisfactory personal 
results than an eternal hunt after advanced 
professional psychics. Certainly everyone 
should take opportunities for witnessing ad- 
vanced phases of phenomena, but no reliance 
should be placed on such occasional exhibitions 
for anything in the way of personal communion 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 61 

with particular persons in the Beyond. Ma- 
terialisation, direct voice, etc., are very useful 
in bringing home to one's mind the reality of 
the next life, but the harmonious home circle 
with its table tilting, bits of clairvoyance, clair- 
audience, and so on, and minus the professional 
medium, is the best means of getting into touch, 
even though it may be only in a fitful way, with 
one's own relatives. 

Eeturning for a little to movements of the 
table under contact. I remember it was 
through this simple means I was led to take an 
interest in the subject (as I daresay it is with 
many people). A number of us had been sit- 
ting round a small table in the usual way and 
had obtained the usual tiltings and usual mixed- 
up messages, when suddenly the table twisted 
round under our hands and did not stop until 
it had turned through nearly a complete revo- 
lution. It did this two or three times. The 
movement, which was so obviously not pro- 
duced by any of us present and which we did 
not expect — this simple little turning movement 
— caused the first glimmer o,f doubt in my mind 
that all the table tiltings, etc., were due to sub- 



62 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

conscious action of the sitters, as I had strongly 
held up to that time. From that moment — 
now years ago — I decided to investigate the 
matter thoroughly. When one looks back it 
seems rather amusing to observe from what 
small things one's convictions spring. 

Now, while I have been careful to state that 
in the majority of cases of movement of a table 
under contact that the results are to a large 
extent uncertain, and that great common-sense 
and discrimination should be used by enquirers, 
yet it would not be fair to inexperienced read- 
ers if I did not say that sometimes, if one of 
the circle has mediumistic tendencies somewhat 
in excess of the average, very good results can 
be obtained. It is found that in many families 
one or more of its members possesses some- 
what pronounced physical mediumship; not 
sufficiently strong to bring about movements 
without contact, but much stronger than is 
usual and such that when he or she places hands 
on the table along with the hands of the mem- 
bers of the circle, very powerful and even vio- 
lent movements of the table take place; the 
action in these cases being often purely psychic 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 63 

and having practically nothing to do with the 
exertion of muscular force. I am personally 
acquainted with the members of several such 
circles. At a seance with one of these, all hands 
being placed lightly on top of the table, the 
table, which weighed at least twenty pounds, 
rose completely into the air — this being the 
only case of levitation with contact that I have 
witnessed, although the phenomenon is said to 
be fairly common. At another of these circles 
some vigorous entity seemingly took charge 
of the table (he gave a name and other par- 
ticulars) for with only a few hands lightly rest- 
ing on its surface I was unable, although I ex- 
erted all my force standing directly over it, to 
prevent it moving, twisting about, and dancing 
on the floor. Yet these two friends of mine, to 
whose mediumship the phenomena were due, 
were not sufficiently strong, psychically speak- 
ing, to obtain phenomena without contact. 
They were contact mediums only. I rather 
think that in true psychic phenomena with con- 
tact, i. e., where the muscles of the medium are 
not used to produce the table movements, the 
spirit entities first of all "draw" from the sit- 



64 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ters a quantity of psychic fluid and probably 
connect this to the fluid emanations of the me- 
dium, i. e., attach it to his aura so as to strength- 
en it. They then apply forces to different parts 
of the table as they do in non-contact phenom- 
ena by means of rod-like projections from the 
auric sheath of the medium. The reaction would 
thus probably be found on the medium as it is in 
the case of non-contact phenomena. Any reader 
of these notes who has attended a few circles 
will be aware of the cold breeze which is often 
felt on the hands for a little time at the com- 
mencement of the sitting; and perhaps, also, 
of a peculiar kind of tingling of the finger tips 
and even of a cobwebby sensation on the face 
and hands ; also, sometimes a feeling of nerv- 
ous irritation as though something was being 
drawn out of the body. These things usually 
happen only at the beginning of the seance and 
are in abeyance later on. What they really 
mean is probably that the operators are ab- 
stracting from the bodies of the sitters particles 
of nervous matter; are causing a flow, as it 
were, from their bodies. Normally, I expect 
that the aura, the nervous enswathement of the 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 65 

body, is in a state of equilibrium, but that the 
operators can act on it and project it to a con- 
siderable distance from the body. When the 
hands of the sitters are in contact with the wood 
of the table, the spirit operators, acting as they 
must from within the body outwards, can pro- 
ject these auric or nervous emanations into 
space more easily than if there was an air gap 
to cross, as in non-contact phenomena. The ema- 
nation when projected, clings to the wood, and 
does not tend to dissipate itself in the air. It can 
therefore be more easily collected and concen- 
trated in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
table than would be the case if it were thrown 
from the body into the air with no conducting 
medium to help. 

It is interesting to speculate about the why 
and wherefore of such phenomena even though 
there is very little to go on in the way of ex- 
perimental results. I have certainly received 
messages via the table stating that the spirit 
entities mix the psychic or nervous emanations 
of the sitters and that sometimes there is diffi- 
culty in getting these emanations to blend, this 
especially being so if the circle is a promiscu- 



66 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

ous one. And my observations on non-contact 
phenomena lead me to believe there is a certain 
amount of truth in the statement. For in- 
stance, in seance rooms where tables were 
moved without physical contact, I found that 
after a sitting was well started, I was always 
unable to charge an electroscope, even though I 
tried to do so in a corner of the chamber far- 
thest from the medium. In order to charge it 
I had to take it outside the room. I asked the 
operators if there was any " power" in the 
seance room so far away from the medium and 
they answered by raps that there was. By 
" power" I understood them to mean particles 
of matter taken from the medium. They al- 
ways called everything of this nature " power." 
I take it that some of the nervous particles from 
medium and sitters were probably floating 
about in the air — particles which had got out of 
control, as it were. Indeed, it is not hard to 
imagine this is so. For occasionally I have felt 
a peculiar tension of the nerves in the seance 
room as though external charged particles were 
interacting with my nervous system. I did not 
feel this very strongly or very often at my Bel- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 67 

fast experimental circle, owing, presumably to 
the nervous currents being so rigorously under 
control there. But with other mediums and cir- 
cles I have felt it very violently. As a case in 
point I remember I was once sitting beside a 
friend at a public meeting, when he suddenly 
commenced to shiver and give spasmodic jerks 
of the body and limbs, and to present, in short, 
all the symptoms of being under strong "con- 
trol." He tried in vain to throw the influence 
off but did not succeed, and had finally to leave 
the room. As I say, I was sitting beside him, 
but I was not in physical contact with him. But 
while the spasmodic jerking was occurring, I 
felt a most peculiar electrical kind of tension 
all over my body ; not a jerky muscular feeling, 
but a sensation as though my nervous system 
was highly "charged." The feeling disap- 
peared as soon as my friend left the hall. What 
had been happening? Possibly some spirit en- 
tity was endeavouring to take control of him 
(as a matter of fact he said he recognised his 
chief "guide"), was acting on my friend's 
nervous system, was throwing off into space 
surrounding him nervous streams, or nervous 



68 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

particles, or was acting on or expanding his 
aura, with the consequence that my own nerv- 
ous system or auric enswathement came into 
the region of disturbance and was thereby af- 
fected. 

I remember that on another occasion some- 
thing of a similar nature occurred. A young 
lady was showing me some of the phenomena 
she could obtain with the table. She was a 
powerful "contact" medium and no sooner did 
she place her hands on the edge of a heavy table 
than it moved about in an extraordinarily vio- 
lent manner. I was standing near the table, a 
couple of feet away from the medium. Sud- 
denly I felt a violent muscular contraction in 
the chest, and this was succeeded in a few sec- 
onds by another. At the same time the whole 
of the little room seemed to be highly charged 
with a species of electrical tension which im- 
pinged upon and strongly affected the whole of 
my own nervous system. So violent were the 
sensations that I had in the end to leave the 
room. And I experienced disagreeable twitch- 
ings and a nervous exaltation round the surface 
of the body for more than an hour afterwards. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 69 

It seems likely that the nervous emanations 
projected from the medium were in this case 
of so violent a character that they were sent 
out into space for a considerable distance round 
her and impinged upon and affected my system 
of nervous equilibrium. Psychic energy must 
come from somewhere and there is every reason 
to suppose, as I have mentioned, that a lot of 
it comes from the bodies of the medium and sit- 
ters in the room. The field for research here is 
vast, and I for one, if I can find the time, in- 
tend to experiment in this domain. 

Only persons who feel a strong desire that 
way should investigate spiritualism. It is not 
a matter of an evening's fun. The subject 
should only be approached in a reverent and 
enquiring spirit, all levity of a hilarious kind 
being strictly prohibited. For it is a sufficiently 
serious matter to meet together with the ob- 
ject of opening up communication across the 
bridge of death, as many of us believe is the 
case. We are, at the very least, delving into 
the unknown, and it behooves us to protect our- 
selves by behaving in a serious and becoming 
way. I know enough from practical acquaint- 



70 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ance with the subject to say that it is only by 
looking upon the matter in a serious light that 
any results of value can be obtained. I do not 
mean, of course, that when we assemble for a 
seance we should be pervaded with a gloomy 
and solemn spirit. That is quite unnecessary 
and deleterious to good phenomena. But there 
should be no behaviour of a childish or silly 
kind. 

During sittings the mind should be kept in 
a state of gentle relaxation — there should be 
no mental concentration. Too much attention 
should not be paid to any phenomena occur- 
ring, the reason being that when the brain is 
in a state of concentration experiments show 
that operators — those who produce the phe- 
nomena — have difficulty in establishing the es- 
sential flow of psychic energy from the bodies 
of the sitters. Why this should be so I do not 
pretend to know, but that it is so I have no 
doubt whatever. No troubles or worries of any 
kind should be brought to the seance room. The 
mind should be in a placid cheerful state. The 
better the physical health, the more cheerful 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 71 

and happy the spirit, the better the phenomena, 
other things being equal. 

No heavy meals should be partaken of for 
some hours before a seance. The members con- 
stituting the circle should assemble half an 
hour or so before the sitting and listen to a 
little good music, played perhaps by one of 
them on the piano or organ. This aids mental 
harmony and gives the right atmosphere for 
the seance to follow. It haj^also another ob- 
ject in that — as I believe — it enables the spirit 
operators to establish preliminary contact with 
the members of the circle. 

I am going now to describe, in some detail, 
the method used in holding an ordinary "con- 
tact" seance, i. e., a seance in which the mem- 
bers of the circle place their hands on the sur- 
face of the table. This, as I have already said, 
is a very elementary method of holding com- 
munication with unseen intelligences; but, un- 
fortunately, it is the only one possible or prob- 
able for the great majority of investigators. 

Under good conditions, however, it is a fairly 
satisfactory method and may possibly lead to 
higher and more advanced phases of phenom- 



72 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ena. In any case the hints that I am en- 
abled to give are all from practical experience, 
and will, most of them, apply to all sorts of 
physical phenomena. There is a line of con- 
tinuity about these things, from elementary to 
most advanced, which is more real than ap- 
parent. 

Of course the experimenter must rely for 
evidence only on the messages he receives 
through the tilting table. If he goes about the 
matter in the proper way he may be surprised 
at what will come to him through this simple 
means. I say nothing of that here. It is my 
function to show the thing is done — to explain 
the mechanism as far as possible — and to let 
him cogitate over and analyse the results. 

Let me summarise. If five or six people sit 
round a small ordinary wooden table and place 
their hands palm downwards lightly on its sur- 
face, the table may sooner or later rock about 
or tilt up and down. This movement of the 
table may conceivably be accomplished in one 
of three ways : — 

(1) The table may be consciously moved by 
muscular pressure from the sitters. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 73 

(2) The table may be unconsciously moved 
by muscular pressure from the sitters. 

(3) The table may be moved without the aid 
of muscular action at all. 

It is only of the last type of movement I wish 
to speak, for it is a true psychic action which 
may not only cause the table to rock up and 
down, but may even make it rotate under the 
hands of the sitters, may cause it to dance about 
the floor of the room, and even in extreme cases 
levitate — i. e., rise bodily off the floor. The 
sitters, it is understood, are only touching the 
top of the table lightly with the palms of their 
hands or with their finger tips. When the 
table thus moves about by the true action of 
psychic force upon it, it seems to possess a 
peculiar attribute of inherent liveliness and 
lightness, very obvious to the sitters, who soon 
become convinced that its motions are quite in- 
dependent of muscular pressure. On the other 
hand, if the psychic force is absent or is not 
being applied, the table feels heavy and dead. 

What causes the table to move if muscular 
force has nothing to do with the matter? Up 
to the time of my experiments on table move- 



74 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ments without contact, I do not think anyone 
had much idea. But I fancy the matter is a lit- 
tle clearer now. Arguing on the basis of non- 
contact phenomena what probably happens is 
that psychic arms — invisible and impalpable — 
project themselves from the person who is me- 
diumistic, these arms being supplied with en- 
ergy from the bodies of the sitters. Briefly, 
the medium supplies the psychic arm and the 
sitters the energy required to work it. If there 
be no medium present no psychic arm can be 
projected and no phenomena can ensue though 
all the sitters may be able to give forth psychic 
energy in abundance. Hence it does not fol- 
low that because a person is robust in health 
that he must of necessity be a good physical 
medium. 

These invisible psychic arms probably grip 
the table by adhesion to its under surface or 
legs and thus bring about the movements which 
appear so mysterious. I must refer the reader 
who is interested in this phase of the subject 
to my book "The Reality of Psychic Phe- 
nomena/ ' * where full experimental details are 

* Published 1918, by E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 75 

given of tests made with phenomena of the non- 
contact type. 

Why is it so much easier for the unseen en- 
tities to move the table, i. e., to apply psychic 
force to it, when the hands of the sitters are 
in gentle contact with it than when no one is 
touching it? Possibly and probably because 
they find it a great deal easier to abstract 
psychic energy from the sitters and store it 
within the fibres of the wood of the table when 
the sitters' hands are in contact with the wood 
than when there is no contact. For I have rea- 
son to believe that the energy required to bring 
about the movements — i. e., to account for the 
work done, is really stored within the wood of 
the table and used as occasion demands. 

What are the best conditions for obtaining 
good psychic movements of the table ? The first 
essential, of course, is the presence of a phys- 
ical medium. In many families, as I have al- 
ready said, there are one or more members who 
are sufficiently mediumistic to allow of the dis- 
play of "contact" phenomena. 

A circle of sitters is necessary to support the 
medium, i. e., to give off psychic energy so that 



76 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

the psychic arms may be enabled to move the 
table about. The number of persons compos- 
ing the circle should, in general, be about five 
and should not exceed seven, at any rate in the 
home circle. 

The sitters should sit on wooden chairs — 
never on cushions if it can be avoided. They 
should make themselves quite comfortable. 
They should place their hands lightly on the 
surface of the table, palms downwards, the lit- 
tle finger of each hand touching the little finger 
of the hand of the sitter on the other side, but 
their own hands not in contact. The reason 
for this last is that the psychic fluid — prob- 
ably a very attenuated form of matter with 
which is associated psychic energy— is caused 
to circulate through the bodies of the sitters, 
gaining strength from each, and if a person's 
own hands are in contact there is, to use an 
electrical analogy, the likelihood of a short cir- 
cuit, with the consequence^ that his share of 
the energy cannot be taken. For a similar rea- 
son the legs must not be crossed but must be 
planted firmly on the floor. After the seance 
has been in operation for some time, say for 



PHENOMENA OF SPIKITUALISM 77 

half an hour, these precautions may be sen- 
sibly relaxed without injury to phenomena, as 
by that time a large store of psychic energy 
has probably been accumulated. If a cold 
breeze is felt playing about the hands it may 
be taken as a certain sign that psychic ac- 
tion is under way. The fingers of some of the 
circle may also become cold and some may 
experience a cobwebby sensation about the face, 
which are also signs of psychic action. After 
a while the cold breeze usually ceases and the 
fingers become warm, probably due to the fact 
that the withdrawal of psychic energy has 
ceased or is complete. 

The disposition of the sitters round the table 
is important. Generally speaking the two sexes 
should alternate although the rule is not with- 
out exception. Anyhow at a first sitting let the 
men and women sit alternately. If phenomena 
are not obtained try various alterations. Even 
if phenomena are obtained take the advice of 
the operating entities as to the permanent dis- 
position of the sitters. The reason why some 
arrangements of the sitters are good and some 
bad has probably to do with the ability of the 



78 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

various members of the circle to supply psychic 
energy. To take a mechanical analogy, the sit- 
ters may be likened to a lot of steam engines 
of different types and sizes. Some are able 
to produce more work than others. In arrang- 
ing such a series of engines so that they would 
all work together and give the maximum com- 
bined amount of work, we should have to be 
careful we did not set any one of them to work 
against /another and cause neutralisation of 
effort; and further, it would be better to ar- 
range them in a series of gradation as regards 
size, so that a small one was not working be- 
side a large one and so on. The reader will 
thus see the underlying idea in having the 
proper arrangement of sitters. 

The type of table used in these experiments 
is of some importance if good results are hoped 
for. To begin with, it should be made of wood, 
and a wood of not too great density. Ordinary 
deal is, I think, the most suitable. The wood 
must not be painted or stained or touched in 
any way, the reason for this being that experi- 
mental work shows that the psychic arms — 
those usually invisible and impalpable struc- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 79 

tures which grip the table and move it about 
(at any rate in non-contact phenomena) are 
able to act best on the plain wood. The rougher 
the surfaces, within limits, the better. Polished 
bodies, whether of metal or of wood, are dis- 
liked by these arms as they cannot get a grip 
on such surfaces. In fact, during experimental 
investigation, I have always to place a rough 
piece of cloth over any surface which is pol- 
ished and upon which I wish psychic force to 
be exerted. An open porous wood is also best 
for the reason that the psychic energy — which, 
as I have already said, seems to be associated 
with matter in one of its finest forms — appears 
to be required to be stored up in the wood, and 
if the latter is too dense and hard, these par- 
ticles of matter cannot effect a satisfactory 
lodgment. 

I do not recommend that the surface of the 
table be made round. I think an ordinary rec- 
tangular one is best with its corners left quite 
square. In fact, as a general rule, it may be 
stated that there should be nothing at all 
rounded or curved about the seance table. The 
legs should be square. No edges should be 



80 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

bevelled. The reason for all this is that ex- 
periment shows that the free end of the psychic 
arm grips by adhesion, and that, like the hu- 
man hand, it can get the best grip on a corner 
or edged surface. 

The weight of the table should, generally 
speaking, not exceed ten or twelve pounds. For 
we have to remember that the heavier the table 
the more work is done in moving it ; and, as the 
bodies of the sitters in all probability supply 
this energy, it follows that the less energy re- 
quired the less the drain on the members com- 
posing the circle. If possible the table should 
be constructed without nails, screws, or metal 
clamps of any kind; but if it is necessary to use 
any nails or screws they should be well bedded 
into the wood and their heads covered with 
putty. The dimensions of the table should be 
about thirty inches by twenty inches on top, its 
height about twenty-seven inches, it should have 
four legs and cross-bars joining the legs near 
the bottom. It should also have, if possible, a 
flat piece of wood about a foot above the floor 
fitted in between the legs. The table should 
be pretty firmly and strongly made, as some- 



PHENOMENA OP SPIEITUALISM 81 

times the movements due to psychic action be- 
come fairly violent — especially towards the end 
of the seance — and it is likely to come in for 
hard usage. 

If the experimenter does not wish to go to 
the trouble of getting a table as outlined above, 
a little bamboo one weighing four or five 
pounds, such as is used for holding ornaments, 
will be found quite useful, especially if there 
are only two or three sitters. But I recommend 
all who are in earnest about the matter to have 
a proper table made, which should be used for 
no other purpose than for seances. 

The seance room should be in a quiet part 
of the house and as far removed as possible 
from street noises and the like. It should not 
be too large. It should be well ventilated, and, 
if the higher phenomena are desired, the venti- 
lation system must not allow of external light 
entering the chamber. The temperature of the 
room is also an important factor if we desire 
good phenomena. About 65° Fahrenheit seems 
to be the best. Apart from inconvenience to the 
sitters caused by temperatures much higher or 
lower than this, the psychic emanations from 



82 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 
the bodies of the medium and sitters are also 
probably to some extent adversely affected — it 
being probably a question of chemistry. Ex- 
perimenters have found that a wet or moist 
condition of the atmosphere is * deleterious to 
phenomena, the dry, electrical condition being 
most advantageous. Perhaps the presence of 
an undue quantity of water vapour in the air 
causes reaction upon the psychic stuff present 
in the chamber, the action again being a chemi- 
cal one. 

The question of lighting the seance room is 
an important one. Indeed, I may say that the 
light question has been the most troublesome 
one throughout the whole history of psychic re- 
search. The plain fact of the matter is that 
anything like advanced phenomena cannot be 
obtained in any but the feeblest of light. Of 
course there are very good reasons for this 
state of things, but nevertheless it is very an- 
noying. Perhaps, generally speaking, the fact 
that nothing of any magnitude can be obtained 
in ordinary light is a provision of nature, for 
otherwise, I suspect this world of ours would 
be continually under impact from the realms 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 83 

psychic. The chief specific reason for the neces- 
sity of absence of light seems to lie in the fact 
that ether light vibrations prevent the efflux of 
psychic energy from the bodies of the sitters, or 
else inhibit the invisible emanations from the 
body of the medium; that is to say, the ether 
ripples interact on psychic stuff generally and 
break it down. 

For advanced phenomena I have only been 
able to use a red light, i. e., the kind of light 
in which the ether vibrations are slowest. How- 
ever, for contact phenomena such as I have 
been considering, we need not, fortunately, be 
so rigorous. If the seance is held at night it 
is generally sufficient to pull down the blinds 
and put a screen in front of the fire, the gas 
or other lights being lowered. Have no illu- 
mination, or very little, on the top or under 
surface of the table. If the experimenter de- 
sires to have the best results and does not mind 
going to some trouble, he should instal a sys- 
tem of red illumination. If gas is the illumi- 
nant, it is easy to fix it inside a lantern hav- 
ing red glass front and sides. If electricity is 
available, red glass globes can be used, and 



84 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

if fine gradation is essential, a resistance may 
be placed in the circuit so that the intensity of 
illumination may be increased or decreased at 
will. For the higher phenomena, such as move- 
ments without contact, a proper lighting sys- 
tem is essential, and this means also a special 
room kept for nothing but seances. Also in this 
case a proper method of heating the room is re- 
quired, no open fires being possible. Various 
gas and electric stoves can be obtained which 
give out heat but no light, and one of these 
should be installed, or a little ingenuity in the 
use of asbestos sheet can prevent light rays 
from being projected into the room if an ordi- 
nary heating stove is used (of course an ordi- 
nary gas burner or electric light should also 
be in the room so that the chamber may be 
normally lighted except during the time of the 
actual seance). But these precautions are only 
necessary for the major phenomena and are not 
needed for motion of a table with contact. 

Many mediums can obtain with contact good 
psychic movements of the table in fairly strong 
daylight, and most can obtain them in a light 
comparable to the dusk of evening. Let each 



PHENOMENA OP SPIRITUALISM 85 

experimenter try for himself and discover the 
maximum of light possible consistent with good 
results. 

The inhibiting properties of actinic light are 
sometimes useful. For occasionally towards 
the end of a seance the table movements become 
very strong — stronger, in fact, than is agreeable 
if the mediumship is a little above the average 
— and if that is so these motions may be imme- 
diately stopped by shining a strong light on and 
around about the table top, i.e., the gas need 
only be turned on full. 

At the conclusion of the seance the members 
composing the circle should clasp hands in chain 
order for about a minute, a request being made 
at the same time to the entities controlling the 
circle that the loss of psychic energy due to the 
phenomena should be averaged up amongst the 
sitters. I have found that this method really 
has some value and prevents undue depletion 
from anyone from whom the psychic flow can be 
easily started. 

I am going now to describe some experi- 
mental work which can be done on contact phe- 
nomena. The apparatus is comparatively sim- 



86 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

pie and may be constructed by anyone possess- 
ing a little ingenuity. I am aware that many 
investigators of this subject would like to test 
the matter in a more rigorous manner than is 
possible in the ordinary way. 

Figure 1 shows the type of table I have 
employed at many of my experimental seances. 
Its construction will be readily understood from 
the photograph, although the reader will note 
that there is no underleaf such as I have rec- 
ommended previously, the reason for this being 
that with experimental work it is advisable to 
have the legs clear of all encumbrances. 

Figure 2 shows the underside of the table 
and the construction adopted in order to use 
as few nails as possible. 

Figures 3 and 4 show the table fitted up for 
experimental work. 

Briefly the object of the apparatus on the top 
of the table is to prevent muscular pressure, 
or at least to render the fact of muscular pres- 
sure immediately known. 

Figure 5 is a plan of the top of the table. A 
rectangular piece of wooc 1 (E) is screwed to 
the centre of the table 5 iour thin flat pieces 




, Fig. 1 




Fig. 2 




Ftg. 3 




Fig. 4 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 87 

of wood A, B, C, and D are hinged to E, 
so that they can move freely up and down. 
Underneath each of these flat pieces of wood a 
small piece of helical spring is fixed to the sur- 
face of the table, and each of the flat pieces rests 




on the top of the spring. Upon the surface of 
the table and upon the lower surfaces of A, B, C, 
and D, metal contacts are fixed, which are con- 
nected together by insulated copper wire and 
put in the circuit of an electric ball which is 
fixed upon the wall. Across the centre of A, 
B, C, and D a chalk line is drawn. The pres- 
sure necessary upon A, B, C, or D to cause 



88 HINTS AND OBSEKVATIONS 

the contacts to meet and the bell to ring can be 
ascertained by placing weights upon them. The 
sitters must be instructed not to place their fin- 
gers beyond the chalk lines. A good way to 
adjust the apparatus is to place a small weight 
anywhere on A, B, C, or D, outside the chalk 
line, and thus cause the bell to ring. A very 
little manipulation will soon enable the experi- 
menter to so arrange matters that the bell will 
ring for any pressure exceeding, say, half a 
pound. 

The table is suspended by four cords as 
shown in figures 3 and 4 and is hung from a 
circular spring balance which is fixed to the 
roof. The legs should clear the floor by a dis- 
tance of 3 inches or 4 inches. The four sitters 
forming the circle should then sit upon wooden 
chairs and place their fingers lightly beyond the 
chalk lines upon A, B, C, and D, respectively. 
The experimenter should satisfy himself that 
the bell will ring for any combined pressure 
greater than, say, a couple of pounds. The se- 
ance should then be allowed to proceed in the 
usual way. If the mediumship be fairly strong 
it will be found that the table will soon begin 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 89 

to oscillate about and jump and down. A re- 
quest should then be made to the operators that 
a downward force be put upon the table without 
causing the bell to ring. This may not be very 
successful at first, but sooner or later it will 
be found that the spring balance will indicate 
a considerable downward pull — much in excess 
of that possible by muscular pressure from the 
sitters without causing the bell to ring. Also 
a request may be made that the table be pulled 
or pushed upwards without the bell ringing, 
and this will probably be also found possi- 
ble. 

The following are some of the results that I 
have obtained with apparatus such as described. 
With the hands of the sitters lightly touch- 
ing the top of the contact apparatus I have 
had the table pulled downwards with the force 
of 27y 2 lbs. in excess of the weight of the table, 
and I have had it pushed or pulled upwards 
with a force of 12 or 14 lbs., that is to say, with 
a force practically equal to its weight. Not 
once, but dozens of times have I had such results 
as these, which show beyond the possibility of 
doubt that the pressure applied to the table was 



90 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

not a muscular one but was due to pure psychic 
action. The reader, if he goes along such lines, 
will probably be able to satisfy himself in the 
same way. If he wish to proceed further he 
may place a small platform weighing machine 
on the floor beside the table, and he may seat 
the medium on a chair placed upon the platform, 
and in this way he will be able to note the ef- 
fect on the medium's weight of the various 
psychic pressures exerted on the table. I have 
a large series of such results, but I will not give 
them here. I would rather the reader experi- 
ment for himself and come to his own conclu- 
sions. It will be found that if the mediumship 
present is at all strong the contact phenomena 
may quickly develop into the non-contact va- 
riety, in which case the reader will understand 
that he may proceed to experiment along simi- 
lar lines. He will probably find that the meth- 
ods made use of by the operators are similar 
in both cases though differing somewhat in de- 
gree. 

Let me now proceed to state some of the con- 
ditions and precautions that must be observed 
if good non-contact phenomena are expected. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 91 

In the first place it is useless to expect much in 
the way of this kind of phenomena unless the 
experimenter is prepared to go to considerable 
trouble. The lighting will have to be attended 
to carefully, for probably nothing will be ob- 
tained if any daylight enters the seance cham- 
ber. An artificial light will have to be resorted 
to, and the only kind of light possible, as I have 
already explained, is a red one. The sitters 
will have to attend regularly, once a week prob- 
ably for months on end. They should keep to 
a definite hour for each sitting, and nothing, ex- 
cept the impossible, should prevent the seance 
being duly held at that particular hour. The 
table should be placed within the centre of the 
circle, but the sitters, instead of placing their 
hands upon its surface, should clasp each other's 
hands in chain order. Figure 1 shows a cor- 
rect method of holding the medium's hands, 
where it will be seen that the fingers are com- 
paratively free — the reason for this being that 
experiments show that the psychic fluid issues 
most easily from the extremities, either hands 
or feet. It is not necessary that the medium 
should go into trance for non-contact phenom- 



92 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

ena ; indeed she may be as wide awake as any 
of the members of the circle, even while phe- 
nomena of tremendous magnitude are occur- 
ring. At the same time if the medium evinces 
any desire to go into trance nothing should be 
done to prevent her, for she will be quite safe 
if the circle is being conducted on satisfactory 
lines. It is possible that for several months no 
phenomena at all will be obtained, while on 
the other hand phenomena may occur within 
five minutes of the red light being turned on. 
The kinds of phenomena to be expected are 
raps, movements, and levitation of the table. 
If raps occur it will be very soon found that 
there is some conscious intelligence behind 
them. A code should then be arranged with 
this intelligence, say three raps for "yes," one 
for "no" and two for "doubtful." Messages 
may also be arranged for, by a rap being given 
for any particular letter of the alphabet as it 
is spelt out. Above all I would impress upon 
the reader the fact that non-contact phenomena 
are of a somewhat advanced type, and that if he 
expects to get them he will have probably to go 
to considerable trouble, and perhaps inconve- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 93 

nience; nevertheless, I am sure that this type 
of phenomena is not at all beyond the medium- 
ship of a great many persons, and I expect to 
see it develop greatly in the future. 



It has been found from experience that the 
effect of music at seances is to heighten and 
make easier the phenomenal effects obtained. 
Good harmonious singing has certainly a ben- 
eficial effect. Organ music greatly assists 
things at materialisation sittings, and during 
seances for all kinds of phenomena a little sing- 
ing should be indulged in. How does music 
help? In my opinion in two ways. The first 
and most obvious is tLat it soothes the minds 
of those present, and experience proves that for 
the best results an equable condition of mind is 
essential. Any anxiety, worry, or mental dis- 
turbance brought into the seance room is very 
deleterious to the production of good phenom- 
ena. A light-hearted, hopeful, buoyant spirit 
is by far the best. The operating entities find 
a heavy, melancholy condition of mind almost 
impossible to work with, for the reader should 



94 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

remember there is much reason to suppose that 
even for physical phenomena the brains of the 
sitters are impressed; I mean that the flow of 
nervous energy is probably started, or at any 
rate partly started, by impression on portions 
Of the brain. Hence the beneficial effect of good 
music upon the spirits of the sitters is a direct 
aid to the production of phenomena. But 
music, for physical phenomena, at least, has a 
second and perhaps more important function. 
This seems to be nothing less than to set the 
air into a state of rhythmic stress. It is well 
known that sound is transmitted by waves in 
the air, alternate rarefactions and compres- 
sions. It would appear that when the flabiness, 
as it were, has been taken out of the air by set- 
ting it into an initial state of slight vibratory 
stress by the action of sound waves, the spirit 
operators can work to the best advantage. The 
same kind of thing is not unknown in ordinary 
experimental work. As a case in point I may 
cite an experiment often performed in mechan- 
ics laboratories, where a long cord of india-rub- 
ber has weights applied to its end in order that 
the elongation produced may be measured. To 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 95 

take the initial looseness out of the cord, a very 
small weight is first hung on it and this weight 
is not counted in subsequent computations. 
That is to say, to get the best effects and to 
render the calculations accurate, the cord is 
first put into a slight state of stress. So it is, 
I opine, with the air in the seance room. The 
operators find it easier to throw out their psy- 
chic projections if the air is in a state of slight 
initial vibratory stress, and they find this is 
best brought about by music and especially by 
the deep notes of the organ. There is a reason, 
if we can only find it, for everything, and it is 
wise to seek the why and wherefore of things 
in the deep and mysterious processes connected 
with psychic phenomena. 

Nearly all physical seances, from the most 
elementary to the most advanced, can be di- 
vided into two fairly well-marked stages. There 
is the stage of preparation or of psychic in- 
stability, and the stage of psychic equilibrium. 
In the former the various initiatory processes 
are set in operation which presently result in 
phenomena. The preparatory part of the se- 
ance time is required, I think, chiefly to set 



96 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

processes going which result in a supply of 
psychic energy being obtained from the bodies 
of the sitters. The nervous twitching of the 
body often experienced at or near the com- 
mencement of seances is visible evidence of this 
fact. The duration of the initial stage is af- 
fected by many things, the health and harmony 
of the sitters, and the state of the weather be- 
ing perhaps the most important. If all or most 
of the essential conditions are good, the prepar- 
atory stage is usually over very quickly. I have 
seen phenomena commence the moment the red 
light was turned on, and on the other hand, with 
the same sitters and conditions apparently the 
same, I have seen them delayed for half an 
hour; thus the importance of going to consid- 
erable trouble with details. 

I have no doubt whatever that the operators 
■ — i.e., the entities producing the phenomena, 
whether the reader look upon such entities as 
spirits, our subconscious selves, or extra-ter- 
restrial intelligences — have to do a good deal of 
experimenting in order to obtain satisfactory 
results. I have many times watched them ex- 
perimenting in order to bring about some par- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 97 

ticular phenomenon they desired; they would 
keep trying even after repeated failures, and 
would not give in until success was actually at- 
tained or until they realised that what they 
wished was impossible of accomplishment. I 
do not doubt that even the simplest phenomena 
require quite a lot of testing and working up 
before a successful result is reached — for it 
must be remembered that these entities are not 
working miraculously but are making use of 
natural laws that we of this world know little 
about at present. A time is coming, of- course, 
when we shall know quite a lot about them, but 
that time is not yet. 

Above all, whether the experimenter accepts 
the spirit hypothesis or not he should remember 
at the very least that he is impinging upon the 
realm of unknown energies and intelligences 
and should therefore only touch the matter if 
he is prepared to give it proper attention. If 
he could have a peep behind the scenes while 
even such an elementary form of phenomena as 
table movements is taking place, he would prob- 
ably be greatly surprised at what he would see. 
My deliberate opinion, after some years of re- 



98 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

search in this field, is that it requires the co- 
operation and work of many unseen entities to 
produce physical phenomena. All the real 
work is done on their side of the line and all we 
do when we sit in the seance room is to supply 
suitable conditions. That is to say, the sitters 
are! only the instruments through whom the 
work is done. 



The reality of psychic phenomena is nowa- 
days little disputed. In a short time such phe- 
nomena will be classified and indexed and form 
part of the acknowledged scientific facts of the 
day. It would have been so long ere this but 
for the intolerable amount of humbug and de- 
liberate fraud formerly connected with the sub- 
ject. One cannot even yet be too careful in 
treading its thorny paths. The professional 
medium who takes large fees must always be 
under the temptation to fraud if for any cause 
phenomena should temporarily be lacking in 
quantity or quality. Some there are who, to 
their honour be it said, do not fall ; others are 
suspect. It may be said, speaking generally, 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 99 

that the psychic who can show something in the 
way of physical phenomena, such as telekinesis, 
direct voice, materialisation, etc., is most worth 
while. My advice to the enquirer into things 
psychic is to take nothing for granted and to 
leave the paid mediums alone as far as possible. 
Depend more on the family circle or on circles 
made np of intimate friends. Go only to me- 
diums who have a very clean record if you go 
at all. Ask help from people who from long 
experience in this work can really give you good 
advice. For the pitfalls are many and if not 
careful you may one fine morning find your 
faith in the realities of a next world shattered 
by the discovery that some imposition has been 
practised upon you. I do not wish unduly to 
alarm any reader who may know little of the 
subject. As a matter of fact I have come to the 
conclusion that the fraud hypothesis has been 
rather overdone in the past and that there is 
really much less imposture than is supposed. 
Nevertheless it is well to be on the safe side 
and to recognise that it exists. 

I suppose few people have had the opportu- 
nity or the inclination to make such a prolonged 



100 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

and almost microscopical investigation into 
some of the advanced phrases of spiritualistic 
phenomena as I have carried out; carried out 
with the help only of personal friends and un- 
der the most harmonious and perfect condi- 
tions ; where the object of all was only to dis- 
cover the truth, whatever that truth might be. 
Few have had the chance of examining the evi- 
dence for so long or so thoroughly; of weigh- 
ing up the various inferences and little things 
which occur at the seances in a manner that at 
last brings absolute conviction to the mind. 
For while it is true that the major phenomena, 
such as prolonged levitation under experimental 
conditions, can be reported to the world satis- 
factorily; while it is true that the reaction fig- 
ures can be given, the effect on the weight of the 
medium due to the occurrence of the phenom- 
ena, and so on, there are a hundred and one 
things occurring at the sittings which cannot be 
reduced to figures, which cannot be satisfac- 
torily reported to the outside world, but which 
are nevertheless full of evidential value to the 
persons present. As I say, I have probed into 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 101 

this matter very minutely and I am now satis- 
fied that man survives death. 

If we glance over the range of psychic phe- 
nomena — a tremendous range — we are irresis- 
tibly led to the conclusions that either (1) man 
survives death and the phenomena and happen- 
ings of the seance room are due to disembodied 
spirits, or (2) they are due to some unknown 
part of ourselves, some latent intelligent en- 
ergy connected with ourselves which not only 
produces the phenomena, but acts intelligently 
and with consistent f raudulence, inasmuch as it 
pretends to be an independent spirit which has 
passed through physical death and now wishes 
to communicate to show us here on earth that 
death is really not the end. In short, the only 
alternative to the spirit hypothesis lies in the 
possibility of there being a chance that some- 
thing may be discovered which will eventually 
point to some other origin of the phenomena. 
That is the alternative I had in mind all through 
my investigations. As month succeeded month, 
as each new phase of phenomena was presented, 
as each new experiment was done, I always said 
to myself, "Can this very determined work of 



102 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

seemingly intelligent beings be but a simula- 
tion after all? Can it be all a fraud? Is it 
possible that nature holds intelligences belong- 
ing to ourselves or otherwise, which could so 
persistently deceive? What would be the ob- 
ject of it all? Why should our subliminal con- 
sciousness (supposing we possess such a thing) 
carry out for us phenomenal demonstrations on 
the lines of reason and intelligence, requiring 
effort and system, for the object of deceiving 
us?" No! It seems most unlikely and repel- 
lant to our sense of the fitness of things. No- 
body who has not delved deeply into psychic 
phenomena can have any conception of its tre- 
mendous variety and range. It includes teleki- 
netic phenomena (movement of matter without 
contact), apports, materialisation, the direct 
voice, clairvoyance, clairaudience, trance, etc., 
etc. There are, in fact, dozens of phases of 
psychic action, all consistent in the inference 
to which they lead, namely, that man survives 
death, and inconsistent on any other hypothe- 
sis. I say that the evidence is even now great, 
and I venture to predict that within a century 
all doubts will have vanished. 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 103 

It is a strange fact that the most vociferous 
critics of psychic phenomena and of psychical 
things generally are those who have had the 
very slightest personal acquaintances with 
them; but this is no uncommon phenomenon. 
It has always been so ; not perhaps in the scien- 
tific world so much as in the world of common 
every day affairs; yet the scientific world has 
not been altogether exempt, as we see to-day 
in the attempts of those, who from prejudice 
or other cause, are anxious to put a period to 
the researches of people wishing to advance into 
an unexplored domain. These critics say a 
thing is not, and therefore because they say so, 
it is not. If that does not suffice, they say it is 
impossible, and because they are self-appointed 
judges of what is possible or impossible, it is 
accordingly impossible. Lately, however, peo- 
ple have begun thinking for themselves, and ac- 
cordingly the critics altered their line of attack. 
The psychic researchers are now easily satis- 
fied fools. It is quite true that there may be 
such things as psychic phenomena, but to sup- 
pose that because a table rises and remains sus- 
pended in the air for five minutes or more with- 



104 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

out anyone touching it, or because a voice is- 
sues forth from space and says it belongs to 
Mr. So-and-So who is not dead but on the con- 
trary very much alive, to suppose from such 
phenomena that the only explanation is a spir- 
itualistic one, is the height of absurdity. Our 
critics say that we have child-like, innocent 
minds, and that when we witness phenomena 
we immediately rush to the easy conclusion that 
they are produced by the spirits of the dead. 
We gulp down these conclusions as a hungry 
cat laps milk, and are as happy and contented 
afterwards. The truth is, of course, that those 
of us who have investigated the subject and 
have accordingly little time to talk about it, 
have done nothing of the kind. Speaking for 
myself, and I know it is true of my brother 
scientists who have entered this field, I have 
been more careful not to come to premature 
conclusions, I have brought more critical fac- 
ulty to bear on the phenomena, than I have ever 
done in ordinary scientific work. As a matter 
of fact before coming to the conclusion that the 
phenomena I have experimentally examined 
were, in fact, produced by people who once ex- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 105 

isted on this earth, and who now exist in an- 
other world, I have examined every possible 
hypothesis so completely, I have analysed the 
results of the experiments so minutely, I have 
dug into the heart of the matter so thoroughly, 
that my critical faculty, and like most scientific 
men I possess a strong one, is quite satisfied 
as to the conclusion I have adopted. For me, 
since I know, it is quite immaterial if a shoal of 
badly-informed critics rail at the results I have 
arrived at after years of closest experimental 
study in the seance room, but it is sometimes 
hard on people who have not had my oppor- 
tunities of research. 

No man can say off-hand whether an unseen 
world exists or not. That such a world does 
not affect our senses is no argument for its non- 
existence. That an expert in insanity has seen 
no sign of it, is likewise no disproof, but rather 
a verification, for the next state is an eminently 
sane one. That certain charlatans have some- 
times employed fraud in the production of spu- 
rious phenomena does not affect the matter ; that 
Mr. So-and-So who has done no investigation 
says the phenomena will one day be capable of a 



106 HINTS AND OBSEEVATIONS 

1 ' natural ' ' explanation, is immaterial. Those of 
us who have put time and energy into the scien- 
tific investigation of this thing have come prac- 
tically to the unanimous conclusion that there is 
no explanation having any chance of being true, 
which does not presuppose the actual existence 
of a world outside the physical, peopled, at any 
rate in part, by beings who once lived upon this 
earth. 

As a matter of fact the gullibility and simplic- 
ity of the critics of psychic phenomena are ex- 
traordinary. To take one example; they try 
to explain away the simple homely rap — that 
comparatively common and a simple method of 
signalling between the two worlds. But their 
explanations are laughable. The critics of the 
"rap," one of the most elementary of all psy- 
chic phenomena, say that it is produced this 
way and that way in the simplest manner con- 
ceivable by nasty fraudulent methods on the 
part of the medium. As a matter of fact I have 
studied the rap rather exhaustively, placing the 
medium on a weighing machine, obtaining im- 
pressions of the rapping rod, and carrying out 
various experiments of a mechanical and elec- 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 107 

trical kind, so that I know pretty well how the 
rap is produced, not from hearsay or imagina- 
tion, but from years of practical testing in the 
seance room. As I have said, the ideas of the 
critics concerning this same rap are amusing, 
and of as much importance as a child's concep- 
tion of the universe. 

As the most voluble of the critics fails com- 
pletely to understand the mechanism of the rap, 
a comparatively trivial phenomenon, his at- 
tempts to explain the higher phenomena, such 
as materialisation or the direct voice, are ac- 
cordingly more laughable still. Probably no 
phenomena in nature have received such bizarre 
criticism as the psychic. Some people, it would 
seem, would dictate to nature as to what phe- 
nomena should be allowed and what not. They 
call those of us who investigate these things 
emotional and gullible, whereas, of course, the 
shoe is on the other foot, and it is they who are 
the lamentably emotional and gullible, inas- 
much as they allow prejudice full play and at 
the same time place an inhibition to investigate 
upon the intellect. 

In my opinion the greatest need to-day is the 



108 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

discovery of a means of doing without the hu- 
man medium in our intercourse with the next 
state, that is to say, the invention of a purely 
instrumental medium. The position, as it 
seems to me, is that the vast majority of people 
believe in the reality of psychic phenomena, but 
are doubtful as to the interpretation. They 
think that the entities behind the phenomena 
may prove on fuller investigation to be subcon- 
scious intelligences belonging to ourselves. 
They argue that the human ego is probably so 
complex in its make up, the human brain has 
been relatively so little explored, and the new 
facts of secondary and tertiary personality are 
so astounding, that there can be no certainty 
that even physical phenomena, such as material- 
isation, or that which I have described in my 
book, are produced by the spirits of the dead. 
They argue that there may be layers of con- 
sciousness behind our objective egos, which pro- 
duce the phenomenal effects in a way as yet un- 
known, but nevertheless discoverable and have 
nothing at all to do with human beings in an- 
other world. The argument is of course falla- 
cious, but it needs great experience of psychic 



PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM 109 

things to see just why it is fallacious and this 
experience can come to very few. If then we 
can procure an instrumental means of communi- 
cation with the next plane of being, one of the 
greatest stumbling blocks to a general accept- 
ance of the reality of the next life will imme- 
diately vanish. Can it be done? 

I am inclined to think the chances are fairly 
even. I base my opinion on the certain fact 
that a line of continuity exists between the be- 
ings inhabiting the next state and this, and that 
those beings can act on matter in our world 
in peculiar and as yet little understood ways. 
These ways are discoverable, as I think I have 
shown elsewhere. I am also fairly certain that 
there exists a form of energy common to the 
two worlds. Let this once be discovered, and 
provided it can be obtained and used apart from 
the human frame, the problem is solved. I 
think, therefore, that the greatest need of the 
present day is that means should be provided 
to enable scientists to get on the track of this 
energy and sift the matter to the bottom. No 
amateur dilettante work is likely to be of the 
slightest use. The investigators will have to 



110 HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS 

be equipped properly in the scientific sense, and 
must be prepared to make the subject their life 
study. This will entail the provision of a con- 
siderable amount of money for the establish- 
ment of laboratories thoroughly equipped that 
all the apparatus which experience shows to be 
necessary. But the field is so promising and 
a successful conclusion to the search would have 
such a profound effect on the history of the 
world, that I have often marvelled the neces- 
sary funds have not been forthcoming in abun- 
dance long ago. I can think of no way in which 
wealthy adherents to the psychic movement 
could so well employ their surplus riches as in 
the direction I have indicated. 



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